Fields immunology Doctoral advisor Edward B. Lewis Books T Cell Primer | Institutions Stanford University Field Immunology Academic advisor Edward B. Lewis | |
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Born 27 November 1952 (age 64) ( 1952-11-27 ) Alma mater Johns Hopkins University
California Institute of Technology Thesis Programmed DNA rearrangements during differentiation : immunoglobulin class switching (1981) Notable awards Gairdner Foundation International Award
William B. Coley Award
Howard Taylor Ricketts Award
King Faisal International Prize
Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. Prize Education California Institute of Technology (1981), Johns Hopkins University (1974) Awards Gairdner Foundation International Award, Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize Similar Tak Wah Mak, Atul Butte, Joseph C Wu, Andrew Fire, Patrick O Brown | ||
Mark Morris Davis (born 27 November 1952) ForMemRS is Director and Avery Family Professor of Immunology in the Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection at Stanford University.
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Education
Davis was educated at Johns Hopkins University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where he was awarded a PhD in 1981 for research supervised by Edward B. Lewis.
Research
Davis well known for identifying the first T-cell receptor genes, which are responsible for T lymphocytes ability to “see” foreign entities, solving a major mystery in immunology at that time. He and his research group have made many subsequent discoveries about this type of molecule, subsequently, specifically concerning its biochemical properties and other characteristics, including the demonstration that T cells are able to detect and respond to even a single molecule of their ligand-fragments of antigens bound to Major Histocompatibility Complex cell surface molecules. He also developed a novel way of labeling specific T lymphocytes according to the molecules that they recognize, and this procedure is now an important method in many clinical and basic studies of T cell activity, from new vaccines against cancer to identifying “rogue” T cells in autoimmunity. In recent years his has increasingly focused on understanding the human immune system, from developing broad systems biology approaches to inventing new methods to help unravel the complexities of T cell responses to cancer, autoimmunity and infectious diseases.
Awards and honors
Davis has won numerous awards including: