Brief Biography
Dr. David C. Spray is Professor of Neuroscience and Medicine (Cardiology). His research interest has focused on physiological roles of gap junction channels, how alterations in gap junction expression and function lead to disease and whether novel types of gap junction-altering drugs may be therapeutically useful. Studies generally use a variety of diverse techniques (many of which his laboratory introduced to the gap junction field), applied to both primary cultured brain cells (both neurons and glia) and cell lines chosen for expression of certain phenotypes or transfected with various wildtype and mutant connexin constructs. Methods include dual whole cell voltage clamp for the study of macroscopic and single channel junctional currents, Ca2+ and pH imaging on cells and cell aggregates using conventional and confocal optical methods, molecular biology and biochemistry and proteomics using connexin-specific probes, high density cDNA and oligonucleotide arrays for studies on gene expression in normal and pathological nervous system and structural approaches to identify binding domains on cytoplasmic regions of connexin molecules. Additional interests are in developing high-throughput assays to exploit newly available pharmacological, small molecule and gene libraries and in bone marrow stem cell therapy for a parasite-induced dilated cardiomyopathy (Chagas` disease). Honors include membership in the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and visiting professorships in Geneva, Rio de Janeiro, Amsterdam and Regensburg.