Editing Eric H. Davidson

{{Infobox scientist
| name =Eric H. Davidson
<!--  Commented out because image was deleted: | image = Erichdavidson.jpg|225px -->
| caption = Prof. Eric H. Davidson
| birth_date ={{Birth date|1937|4|13}}
| birth_place=[[New York City]], New York
|death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|9|1|1937|4|13}}
|death_place = [[Pasadena, California]]
| residence = 
| nationality = American
| field = [[Developmental biology]]
| work_institution = [[California Institute of Technology]]
| alma_mater =   [[University of Pennsylvania]] (BA, 1958) and [[Rockefeller University]] (Ph.D., 1963)
| doctoral_advisor = [[Alfred Mirsky]]
| known_for  = [[Gene regulatory network]]s, [[Sea Urchin]] [[Developmental biology]]
| prizes = [[Alexander von Humboldt]] Foundation Awardee, [[A.O. Kowalevsky Medal]] (2002), [[International Prize for Biology]] (2011)
| footnotes = Member of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] (1985) and Fellow of the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] (1980) }}

'''Eric Harris Davidson''' (April 13, 1937 – September 1, 2015) was an American [[developmental biology|developmental biologist]] at the [[California Institute of Technology]].<ref name="Hinman2016">{{cite journal|last1=Hinman|first1=Veronica|title=Eric Davidson (1937-2015) and the past, present and future of EvoDevo|journal=Evolution & Development|date=2016|volume=18|issue=2|pages=67–68|doi=10.1111/ede.12180}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.caltech.edu/news/eric-h-davidson-1937-2015-47765 | title = Eric Harris Davidson In Memoriam }}</ref>  Davidson was best known for his pioneering work on the role of gene regulation in [[evolution]], on embryonic specification and for spearheading the effort to sequence the genome of the [[purple sea urchin]], ''Strongylocentrotus purpuratus''.<ref>{{cite journal | author=Sea urchin genome sequencing consortium | title=The genome of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus | journal=Science | year=2006 | volume=314 | pmid=17095691 | pages=941–952 | issue=5801 | doi=10.1126/science.1133609 | pmc=3159423}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author=Hood, L. | title=Gene regulatory networks and embryonic specification | journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. | volume=105 | pmid=18417452 | pages=5955–62 | year=2008 | issue=16 | doi=10.1073/pnas.0801434105 | pmc=2329716}}</ref>  He devoted a large part of his professional career to developing an understanding of [[embryogenesis]] at the genetic level. He wrote many academic works describing his work, including a textbook on early animal development.<ref>{{cite book | author=Davidson, E.H. | title=Gene Activity in Early Development | year=1987 | publisher=Academic Press}}</ref>

==Early career==
Davidson began conducting research as a teenager at The [[Marine Biological Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite video|title=Evolution - The Molecular Landscape Interview with Eric Davidson |url=http://www.scivee.tv/node/11693 |date=2011-03-28 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002073719/http://www.scivee.tv/node/11693 |archivedate=2011-10-02 |df= }}</ref>  After graduating from high school, he matriculated to the [[University of Pennsylvania]] and graduated with a B.A. in biology in 1958.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.its.caltech.edu/~mirsky/ehdavidson.htm
 | title = Eric H. Davidson
}}</ref>  Davidson's Ph.D. work entailed studying RNA synthesis and gene expression in early development of the anuran ''[[Xenopus laevis]]'' in the lab of [[Alfred Mirsky]] at [[Rockefeller University]].<ref>{{citation |author=Davidson, E.H. |author2=Allfrey, V.G. |author3=Mirsky, A.E. |last-author-amp=yes |title=On the RNA synthesized during the lampbrush phase of amphibian oogenesis |year=1964 |journal=PNAS |volume=52 |pages=501–508 |doi=10.1073/pnas.52.2.501}}</ref>

==From Rockefeller to Caltech==
After obtaining his Ph.D., Davidson stayed on at Rockefeller first as a research associate and then as an assistant professor.  In 1971, he moved to the [[California Institute of Technology]] as an associate professor.  There, Davidson took an interest in development of marine invertebrates, especially of the purple sea urchin ''[[Strongylocentrotus purpuratus]]'', and in investigating the function of genomic repetitive DNA elements, both interests of which would lead to a long line of investigation that eventually led to his contemporary interest in gene regulatory networks.<ref>{{cite book |title=Genomic Regulatory Systems: Development and Evolution |year=2001 |publisher=Academic Press}}</ref>

==Career in biology==
Davidson has spent the majority of his scientific career investigating the molecular and mechanistic basis of animal development, i.e. how animals are built by reading the instructions encoded in the egg and, ultimately, in the genome.  While at Rockefeller and very early in his career, he and Roy Britten, then at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, speculated on how the products of transcription, e.g. various RNAs or other downstream products, would need to in principle interact in order for cellular differentiation and gene regulation to occur in multicellular organisms.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1126/science.165.3891.349 |author1=Britten R. |author2=E.H. Davidson | title=Gene regulation for higher cells: a theory | journal=Science | volume=165 | pages=349–57 | pmid=5789433 | year=1969 | issue=3891}}</ref>  This research program eventually led him to investigations regarding the role of gene regulation in cell lineage and embryonic territory specification, both endeavors of which contributed substantially to many biological disciplines, including [[developmental biology]], [[systems biology]] and [[evolutionary developmental biology]]. In 2011, he was awarded the [[International Prize for Biology]] in recognition for his pioneering work on developmental gene regulatory networks.

Shortly before his death from a heart attack in 2015<ref name="LA Times Obit">{{cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-eric-davidson-20150917-story.html|first=Melissa|last=Healey|title=Eric Harris Davidson dies at 78; pioneering developmental biologist|work=Los Angeles Times|date=16 September 2015}}</ref>, Davidson co-authored a landmark review book <ref>{{cite book |title=Genomic Control Process: Development and Evolution |year=2015 |publisher=Academic Press|ISBN=978-0-12-404729-7}}</ref> providing a grand synthesis of the theory and experimental evidence relating to the design and function of genomic regulatory networks within the animal taxonomic clade of [[Bilateria]].

== Interest in American Folk Music ==
In the 1950s and 1960s Davidson traveled throughout [[Grayson County, Virginia|Grayson]] and [[Carroll County, Virginia|Caroll]] counties in Virginia recording traditional folk music <ref>{{Cite journal|last=Erwin|first=Douglas H.|date=2015-10-19|title=Eric Davidson (1937–2015)|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215011148|journal=Current Biology|volume=25|issue=20|pages=R968–R969|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2015.09.034}}</ref>. These recordings were eventually deposited in the [[Smithsonian Folkways]] collection <ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.folkways.si.edu/bluegrass-from-the-blue-ridge-a-half-century-of-change-country-band-music-of-virginia/old-time/music/album/smithsonian|title=Bluegrass From the Blue Ridge: A Half Century of Change: Country Band Music of Virginia {{!}} Smithsonian Folkways|work=Smithsonian Folkways Recordings|access-date=2017-06-25|language=en-US}}</ref>.

==Selected bibliography==
* Isabelle S. Peter and Eric H. Davidson ''Genomic Control Process: Development and Evolution'' (2015) {{ISBN|978-0-12-404729-7}}
* {{cite journal | doi=10.1126/science.165.3891.349 |author1=Britten R. |author2=E.H. Davidson | title=Gene regulation for higher cells: a theory | journal=Science | volume=165 | pages=349–57 | pmid=5789433 | year=1969 | issue=3891}}
* ''Gene Activity in Early Development'' (1987) {{ISBN|0-12-205161-0}}
* ''Genomic Regulatory Systems: Development and Evolution'' (2001) {{ISBN|0-12-205351-6}}
* {{cite journal | author=Davidson, E.H. | author2=J.P. Rast | author3=P. Oliveri | title=A genomic regulatory network for development | journal=Science | volume=295 | pages=1669–78 | pmid=11872831 | year=2002 | issue=5560 | doi=10.1126/science.1069883|display-authors=etal}}
* ''The Regulatory Genome: Gene Regulatory Networks In Development And Evolution'' (2006) {{ISBN|0-12-088563-8}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [http://www.its.caltech.edu/~mirsky/ Research web page]
* [http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20080206759 Patent: Gene regulatory networks and methods of interdiction for controlling the differentiation state of a cell]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Eric H.}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:2015 deaths]]
[[Category:Developmental biologists]]
[[Category:Embryologists]]
[[Category:California Institute of Technology faculty]]
[[Category:American science writers]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]