Beverly L. Davidson, PhD
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Professor of Genetics
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Chief Scientific Strategy Officer at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Director, Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics
Arthur V. Meigs Chair in Pediatrics at CHOP
Contact InformationChildren's Hospital of Philadelphia
3501 Civic Center Boulevard, 5060 CTRB
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Office: 267-426-0929
Fax: 215-590-3660
Email: davidsonbl@chop.edu
Research Expertise
Keywords:
Neurodegenerative Disease
RNA biology
Gene therapy
Animal models
Human treatment
Research in the Davidson Laboratory is focused on inherited genetic diseases that cause central nervous system dysfunction, with a focus on:
i) recessive, childhood onset neurodegenerative disease, such as the lysosomal storage diseases mucopolysaccharidoses and Battens disease;
ii) dominant genetic diseases, specifically the CAG repeat disorders, Huntington’s disease and spinal cerebellar ataxia;
iii) understanding how changes in the transcriptome impact neural development and neurodegenerative disease processes.
Our research on childhood onset neurodegenerative diseases is focused on experiments to better understand the biochemistry and cell biology of proteins deficient in these disorders, and to develop small molecule or gene therapy based strategies for therapy. In recent work, we demonstrated that the application of recombinant viral vectors to various models of storage disease reversed CNS deficits and improved life span. We continue to develop novel vector systems to improve therapeutic outcomes.
Therapies for dominant disorders are an exciting challenge and require that the dominant disease allele be silenced. To approach this, we developed reagents for expressing inhibitory RNAs or editing machinery (e.g., CrispR/Cas9 approaches) in vivo to improve disease phenotypes in relevant animal models.
Finally, we investigate how the transcriptome is altered in neurological diseases. Evaluation of splicing changes has led us to discover novel players in disease pathogenesis that include noncoding RNAs and RNA binding proteins. This work is revealing new pathways of pathogenesis and novel targets for therapy.
Education
B.S. (Biology Major/Chemistry Minor; High Distinction), Nebraska Wesleyan University, 1981
Ph.D. (Biological Chemistry), University of Michigan, 1987
Specialty Certification
Postgraduate Training
Research Assistant, University of Nebraska, Nebraska, 1982-1983
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Michigan, Michigan, 1988-1988
Research Investigator, University of Michigan, Michigan, 1990-1992
Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan, Michigan, 1992-1994
Awards and Honors
President Scholarship Award, 1977-1981
Beta Beta Beta Biology Honorary Society, 1979
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, 1980
VI International Symposium on Human Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism, 1988
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2006
Carver Research Program of Excellence, University of Iowa, 2007-2014
Regents Faculty Excellence Award, 2007
Eureka Award, National Institutes of Health, 2008
Mathilde Solowey Award, National Institutes of Health, 2008
Distinguished Graduate Lecture, University of Michigan Dept of
Biological Chemistry, Ann Arbor, MI, 2011
SJ DeArmond Lecture, American Association of Neuropathologists, 2011
Innovator Award, University of Iowa, 2012
Inventor Award, University of Iowa, 2013
Arthur V. Meigs Chair in Pediatrics, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 2014-Present
Recipient, The Leslie Gehry Prize for Innovation in Science, Hereditary Disease Foundation, 2015
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017
John B. Penney, Jr. M.D., Memorial Lecture, Mass General Hospital, 2017
Member, International Selection Committee, 2018 Bower Award for Achievement in Science, The Franklin Institute, 2017-2018
FE Bennett Memorial Lectureship Award, American Neurological Association, 2018
Member, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 2018
Member, National Academy of Medicine;
Reviewer, National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine (ELHM) Scholars, 2022-, 2019
President, American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, 2021-2022
Katherine A. High Chair in Cell and Gene Therapy, 2022
Safadi Lecturer, Safadi Program of Excellence in Clinical and Translational Neuroscience, University of Chicago, 2022
Dr. John W. Schut Research Achievement Award, National Ataxia Foundation, 2023
Memberships and Professional Organizations
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 1995 - Present
NIH Study Sections, 1995 - Present
NIH/NICHD, 1995 - 1999
National Gene Vector Laboratory, 1996 - 2007
American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, 1997 - Present
Batten Disease Support & Research Association (BDSRA), 2000 - Present
Hunters Hope, 2000 - 2002
Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association, 2000 - 2003
Oxford Biomedica Inc, 2001 - 2006
TIGEM, 2002 - 2002
Sirna Therapeutics, 2004 - 2007
Sirna Therapeutics, 2006 - 2008
Hereditary Disease Foundation, 2006 - 2009
TIGEM, 2006 - 2006
Comitato Telethon Fondazione, 2007 - 2010
Centre de Genomica Regulacio, Barcelona Spain, 2007 - Present
TIGEM, 2007 - 2007
Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins, 2007 - Present
NCL Foundation, Hamburg, Germany, 2008 - Present
Oregon National Primate Research Center, 2008 - Present
TIGEM, 2008 - 2008
Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center, 2008 - 2011
MDRNA, 2009 - 2010
TIGEM, Naples Italy, 2009 - Present
UMass, 2009 - Present
Basal Ganglia Disorders Linnaeus Consortium, Lund, Sweden, 2009 - 2014
Comitato Telethon Fondazione, 2010 - 2011
Marina Biotech, 2010 - 2012
TIGEM, 2011 - 2011
NIH, 2011 - 2016
Hereditary Disease Foundation, 2012 - 2015
nLIFE, 2012 - Present
NIH Common Fund, 2013 - Present
TIGEM, 2014 - 2014
Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, 2014 - 2015
Spark Therapeutics Inc., 2014 - 2019
NIH Common Fund, 2014 - Present
NIH/NINDS, 2014 - 2014
NIH/NINDS, 2014 - Present
European Commission, 2015 - Present
Huntington Study Group, 2015 - 2018
American Society of Human Genetics, 2015 - Present
Intrathecal Administration of scAAV9/Jet-GAN for the Treatment of Giant Axonal Neuropathy (NIH Sponsored), 2015 - Present
National Ataxia Foundation, 2015 - Present
Sarepta Therapeutics, Cambridge, A, 2015 - 2020
NIH/NINDS, 2016 - 2016
Intellia Therapeutics, 2016 - 2020
NIH/NINDS, 2016 - 2016
Friends of Telethon, Italia, 2016 - Present
Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017 - Present
Anhui IsoTex (Yun Tai) Biotech, Inc., 2017 - 2018
Franklin Institute Awards, 2017 - 2018
Johns Hopkins University, 2017 - 2020
STXBP1 Foundation, 2017 - Present
American Society of Human Genetics, 2018 - Present
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia,, 2018 - Present
Prevail Therapeutics, 2018 - 2020
Spirovant, 2018 - Present
Panorama Medicine, Inc., 2019 - Present
Pfizer, 2019 - 2020
Homology Medicines, Inc., 2019 - Present
Elected to National Academy of Medicine, 2019 - Present
Patch Bio, 2020 - Present
Moment Bio, 2020 - Present
Saliogen Therapeutics, 2020 - Present
Voyager Therapeutics, 2020 - Present
Latus Biosciences, 2022 - Present
Fondazione Telethon, 2022 - 2024
National Academy of Sciences, 2022 - Present
Web Links
Selected Publications
Mapping PTBP2 binding in human brain identifies SYNGAP1 as a target for therapeutic splice switching
Dawicki-McKenna JM, Felix AJ, Waxman EA, Cheng C, Amado DA, Ranum PT, Bogush A, Dungan LV, Maguire JA, Gagne AL, Heller EA, French DL, Davidson, BL, Prosser, BL, Nat Commun 14(1): 2628, 2023, PMID:37149717
Targeted long-read sequencing captures CRISPR editing and AAV integration outcomes in brain
Simpson, BP, Yrigollen CM, Izea A, Davidson BL, Mol Ther 31(3): 760-773, 2023, PMID:36617193
Cochlear transduction via cerebrospinal fluid delivery of AAV in non-human primates
Ranum PT, Tecedor L, Keiser MS, Chen YH, Leib DE, Liu X, Davidson, BL, Mol Ther 31(3): 609-612, 2023, PMID:36610400
Haplotyping SNPs for allele-specific gene editing of the expanded huntingtin allele using long-read sequencing
Fang L, Monteys AM, Durr A, Keiser M, Cheng C, Harapanahalli A, Gonzalez-Alegre P, Davidson BL, Wang K, HGG Adv 4(1): 100146, 2022, PMID:36262216
Huntington's disease phenotypes are improved via mTORC1 modulation by small molecule therapy
St-Cyr S, Child DD, Giaime E, Smith AR, Pascua CJ, Hahm S, Saiah E, Davidson BL, PLoS One 17(8): e0273710, 2022, PMID:36037192
Evaluating the state of the science for adeno-associated virus integration: An integrated perspective
Sabatino DE, Bushman FD, Chandler RJ, Crystal RG, Davidson BL, Dolmetsch R, Eggan KC, Gao G, Gil-Farina I, Kay MA, McCarty DM, Montini E, Ndu A, Yuan J (American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) Working Group on AAV Integration), Mol Ther 30(8): 2646-2663, 2022, PMID:35690906
Mapping PTBP splicing in human brain identifies targets for therapeutic splice switching SNYGAP1
Dawicki-McKenna JM, Felix AJ, Waxman EA, Cheng C, Amado DA, Ranum PT, Bogush A, Dungan LV, Heller EA, French DL, Davidson BL, Prosser BL, bioRxiv, 2022
Gene-based therapeutics for rare genetic neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders
Davidson BL, Gao G, Berry-Kravis E, Bradbury AM, Bonnemann C, Buxbaum JD, Corcoran G, Gray SJ, Gray-Edwards H, Kleiman RJ, Shaywitz AJ, Wang D, Zoghbi HY, Flotte TR, Tauscher-Wisniewski S, Tifft CF, Sahin M, (Gene Therapy Workshop Faculty), Mol Ther 30(7): 2416-2428, 2022, PMID:35585789
Evaluating the State of the Science for Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) Integration:An Integrated Perspective
Sabatino DE,, Bushman FD (Chair), Chandler RJ, Crystal RG, Davidson BL, Dolmetsch R, Eggan KC, Gao G, Gil-Farina I, Kay MA, McCarty DM, Montini E, Ndu A, Yuan J, Mol Ther S1525-0016(22)00364-1(): , 2022, PMID:35690906
Gene-based therapeutics for rare genetic neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders
Davidson BL, Gao G, Berry-Kravis E, Bradbury A, Bonnemann C, Buxbaum JD, Corcoran GR, Gray SJ, Gray-Edwards H, Kleiman RJ, Shaywitz A, Wang D, Zoghbi HY, Flotte TR, Tauscher-Wisniewski S, Tifft CF, Sahin M; Gene Therapy Workship Faculty, Mol Ther, 2022, PMID:35585789
