Roger J. Davis, PhD, FRS

H. Arthur Smith Professor and Chair, Program in Molecular Medicine

Dr. Roger J. Davis is the H. Arthur Smith Professor and Chair, Program in Molecular Medicine at the UMass Chan Medical School. He received his initial training as a student at Cambridge University.  He also trained as a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation fellow with Michael P. Czech at the UMass Chan Medical School.  He subsequently joined the faculty of the UMass Chan Medical School and was a founding member of the Program in Molecular Medicine.

Dr. Davis’ studies of signal transduction mechanisms led to the molecular cloning of the first human stress-activated MAP kinase, the cJun NH₂-terminal kinase (JNK).  Subsequent studies defined the molecular structure of the JNK pathway, including the identification of upstream and down-stream pathway components and scaffold proteins.  This signaling pathway is activated in response to many pathological / physiological stimuli and is implicated in inflammatory diseases (e.g. arthritis), cancer, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.  The overall goal of Dr. Davis’ research is to understand the molecular basis for these diseases and to design novel therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Davis served as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator for 30 years.  He was identified as the most highly cited scientist world-wide in 1995-1996 by the Citation Index (Thompson Reuters) and is the author of more than 400 scientific papers (h-index = 176).  He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Inventors, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, American Academy of Microbiology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Cambridge Philosophical Society, European Molecular Biology Organization, and The Royal Society.