Scientist Profiles - Ron Davis

Ronald Davis, Ph.D.,
Professor and Chairman,
Department of Neuroscience

Professor Ronald Davis uses a variety of scientific approaches to probe the fundamental mechanisms that underlie learning and memory. He has discovered numerous genes and proteins in the brain that are required for learning to occur, or for memories to be stabilized. His basic research has broad implications for many psychiatric and neurological diseases, including schizophrenia, autism, Alzheimer’s Disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, drug abuse, age-related memory decline, learning disabilities, and mood disorders. Each of these disorders is often associated with a specific learning/memory problem or the brain molecules thought to be involved in these diseases are known to be involved in memory processes. His research employs two model systems, the fruit fly Drosophila and the mouse, as well as human subjects.

As Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, his lab developed a powerful new imaging technology to visualize changes that occur in the brain of Drosophila as memory is formed. With its short life span and the ease with which it can be mutated, the fruit fly Drosophila is considered by many to be the most valuable animal model in understanding the basic science of memory.  Dr. Davis is one of the nation’s leading experts in the molecular genetics of Drosophila. 

Professor Davis received his B.S. in Zoology at Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of California, Davis. He was a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell and National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He has held faculty positions at Michigan State University, Cold Spring Harbor Institute, in New York.  He has received numerous awards for his pioneering research and is the founding chairman of the Scripps Research Department of Neuroscience. 

Read more about the Davis Lab.

2011 Front Lines of Hope Hero
Tuesday, March 15, 2011: “The Secrets of Memory Formation: You Must Remember This.”

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