Dr Ben Lewis is a medical researcher at Flinders University whose interests are focused on developing innovative methods of drug therapy, including a gene directed prodrug therapy model for targeted cancer treatment. Ben has been an integral part of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at Flinders University since 2002 with his research focussed on the molecular determinants of diversity in drug and chemical metabolism. Ben completed his PhD in 2011 under the supervision of Professor John Miners and was successively awarded a Flinders University Research Fellowship.

In 2012 he was granted a Flinders University Lectureship in Clinical Pharmacology and has lectured clinical and experimental pharmacology to students undertaking the Bachelor of Medical Science, Master of Optometry, Bachelor of Paramedic Science, and has previously been involved in the education of Nurse Practitioners with prescribing rights. He is currently the coordinator of two Topics: 'Human Pharmacology and Therapeutics' and 'Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics'.

Ben has been awarded a number of scientific prizes for his research including the 2007 Australian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT) Oral Prize, the 2009 Faculty of Health Sciences Student Research Prize, the 2010 Adelaide Pharmacology Group (APG) Meeting Presentation Prize, and the 2010 ASCEPT Drug Disposition Special Interest Group Prize. Ben has published 25 peer-reviewed articles and is the lead supervisor of a new drug discovery laboratory within the Department of Clinical Pharmacology. The focus of this laboratory is the design and synthesis of drugs, using the dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase enzymes as molecular targets for mediating vascular endothelial growth factor-dependent and -independent angiogenesis pathways in cancer. There is increasing evidence that identifies a number of the drugs developed by Ben's group may have potential use as anitimicrobial agents and in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's Disease.