David D. Ginty
Harvard University
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Primary Section: 24, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience Secondary Section: 28, Systems Neuroscience Membership Type:
Member
(elected 2017)
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Biosketch
David Ginty is a neuroscientist recognized for his work on the development and organization of the peripheral nervous system. He is known for his work on the functions of neuronal growth factors, and the properties and functional organization of neurons that underlie the sense of touch. Ginty was born in Danbury, CT, and grew up in Fairfield, CT. He graduated from Mount Saint Mary’s College, Emmitsburg, MD in 1984 with a degree in Biology and from East Carolina University School of Medicine in 1989 with a PhD in physiology. He was a postdoctoral fellow in molecular neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. Ginty joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1995. He became an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2000. Ginty moved back to Harvard Medical School, as the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology, in 2013. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Research Interests
David Ginty’s laboratory is interested in the fundamental mechanisms that underlie the sense of touch. They have used a range of investigative approaches, including molecular genetics, circuit mapping and electrophysiological analyses, to unravel the development, organization and function of the sensory neurons of touch and the spinal cord and brainstem circuits they engage. The Ginty laboratory has recently discovered mechanisms of sensory neuron activation, signals controlling neuronal survival and synapse formation, the functional organization of neurons in the mechanosensory region of the spinal cord, and a pathophysiological basis of altered touch sensitivity in autism-spectrum disorders.
