William Bendena

William Bendena is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Queen's University, cross-appointed to the Centre for Neuroscience Studies. He holds a BScH in Biology from the University of Toronto (1976), a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario (1983), and completed postdoctoral training in Molecular Genetics at MIT (1987).

His research focuses on molecular genetics and neurobiology, using the C. elegans model to study neuropeptide and neurotransmitter signaling in nervous system functions. Key areas include locomotion, sensory perception, and metabolism, with implications for human diseases like epilepsy and obesity. He also investigates juvenile hormone regulation, microRNA roles in development, and comparative genomics across arthropods.

Bendena teaches advanced courses such as BIOL 441 (Epigenetics), BIOL 205 (Mendelian and Molecular Genetics), and BIOL 501 (Current topics in Molecular Biology). He runs the Bendena Lab, affiliated with the Centre for Neuroscience, and collaborates widely on projects involving transcriptomics and evolutionary genetics.

His research spans animal behavior, gene regulation, and synthetic biology, with recent publications on horseshoe crab genomics, scorpion venom analysis, and microRNA clusters in Drosophila. His work integrates molecular, genetic, and computational approaches to address fundamental biological questions.