The rockefeller university

Event Details

Type

Friday Lecture Series

Speaker(s)

Graeme Davis, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Medicine, department of biochemistry and biophysics, University of California, San Francisco

Speaker bio(s)

The brain is astonishing in its complexity and capacity for change. This has fascinated scientists for more than a century. But a paradigm shift is underway. It seems likely that the plasticity that drives our ability to learn and remember can only be meaningful in the context of otherwise stable, reproducible, and predictable baseline neural function. Without the existence of potent mechanisms that stabilize neural function, our capacity to learn and remember would be lost in the chaos of daily experiential change. This underscores two great mysteries in neuroscience. How are the functional properties of individual neurons and neural circuits stably maintained throughout life? And, in the face of potent stabilizing mechanisms, how can neural circuitry be modified during neural development, learning, and memory? The Davis lab is seeking to answer these questions by harnessing the powerful forward genetic tools of Drosophila and translating their findings into studies of the mammalian nervous system.

 

Dr. Davis has pioneered the study of homeostatic signaling in the nervous system. Dr. Davis received his Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he was a member of Rodney K. Murphey's lab. He did postdoctoral work in Corey S. Goodman's lab at the University of California, Berkeley and was appointed assistant professor in the department of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF in 1998. He was promoted to associate professor in 2003 and to professor in 2007 and is currently the Morris Herzstein Distinguished Professor of Medicine. Dr. Davis directs the neurobiology course in Woods Hole, an internationally recognized course that has trained many of the world’s top neuroscientists over the past 40 years.

 

Dr. Davis has received the Merck Young Investigator Award, the Klingenstein New Investigator Award, and the Burroughs Wellcome New Investigator Award. He was the recipient of an NIH Merit Award in 2013.

 

 

 

Open to

Public

Host

Vanessa Ruta, Ph.D.

Reception

Refreshments, 3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m., Abby Lounge

Contact

Linda Hanssler

Phone

(212) 327-7714

Sponsor

Linda Hanssler
(212) 327-7714
lhanssler@rockefeller.edu

Readings

http://librarynews.rockefeller.edu/?p=3901