Mark M. Davis

Dr. Davis is one of the world’s leading authorities on T cell recognition. His research focuses on how T cells and B cells recognize antigen and behave following such interactions. This includes the structural and biochemical underpinnings of T cell receptor binding and signal transduction and the dynamics of molecular movement at the T cell/antigen-presenting cell interface, in both preclinical models and humans. His discoveries include identifying the T-cell receptor gene, development of peptide-MHC tetramers to study T cell populations capable of recognizing particular targets and elucidation and quantification of specific events at the immunologic synapse required for T cell function. Dr. Davis is the author or co-author of more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and books, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including the William B. Coley Award in 2000. Dr. Davis received his B.A. degree in molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. degree in molecular biology from the California Institute of Technology. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Immunology at the National Institutes of Health prior to joining Stanford.