Ben Willett

Background

About Ben Willett

I completed my thesis work and obtained my Ph.D. in Immunology under the guidance of Dr. Ross Kedl. My thesis work involved identifying mechanisms behind how mitochondria and mitochondrial fusion machinery support the clonal expansion of effector CD8 T cells. Specifically, my work shows that the inner mitochondrial membrane fusion protein OPA1 has a critical and unique role in maintaining amino acid homeostasis, mitochondrial energy production, and redox management in effector T cells. OPA1's influence on effector T cell metabolism is not shared with the outer mitochondrial membrane fusion proteins MFN1 and MFN2. These functions of OPA1 support the rapid proliferation, survival, and acquisition of effector functions in CD8 T cells during infection and vaccine responses. As I move beyond graduate school, I am eager to transition towards more computationally-heavy projects that will allow me to utilize my mathematics and statistics background as well as bioinformatics skills that I have learned during my thesis.