Graeme Davis, Ph.D.

Dr. Davis’s research focuses on the biological relevance of homeostatic plasticity – compensatory responses elicited by neurons or groups of cells to restore baseline function when perturbation occurs. Dr. Davis’s group provided evidence that presynaptic homeostatic plasticity (PHP) is neuroprotective in mouse models with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This project will use genome-wide screening methods to discover and compare the fundamental mechanism(s) of PHP in mouse and fly models, whether these functions are conserved from fly to mouse, and its relevance to other neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.