Prof Ilan Davis

Professor of Spatial Molecular Biology (Molecular Biosciences)

telephone: 07941488029
email: Ilan.Davis@glasgow.ac.uk
pronouns: He/him/his

Biography

Ilan received his DPhil at ICRF Developmental Biology unit, Oxford University, after completing a Natural Sciences degree at Cambridge University. He did his postdoc at UCSF, San Francisco and then established his own lab at Edinburgh University in 1996 as a Wellcome Fellow, where he became a professor in 2003. He moved to Oxford university in 2007 to take up a professorship in Cell Biology, as a Wellcome Senior Fellow.

Ilan has been at the forefront of demonstrating that pattern formation, neural stem cell development and synaptic plasticity, involve crucial regulation by post-transcriptional regulation. His lab discovered the first example of Dynein transporting mRNA along microtubules during pattern formation in Drosophila embryo and oocyte and demonstrated that mRNA is statically anchored by the motor. They also characterised how phase transition processing bodies triage the fate of mRNA for immediate translation in oocytes or storage for later translation in the embryo.

More recently, they discovered a key step in regulating the rate of division and size of neural stem cells, involving the regulation of mRNA stability by an mRNA binding protein. They also discovered key steps in synaptic plasticity, the molecular basis of memory and learning, involving localised translation of actin binding regulators by another mRNA binding protein.

These studies have involved interdisciplinary work and the development of novel advanced microscopy, image analysis and computational biology methods. Most recently, the lab has also applied their unique expertise to highly sensitive detection of mRNA viruses, allowing the detection of viral replication earlier than previously possible.

Ilan was elected as an EMBO member in 2010.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

Number of items: 33.

2024

Olivares-Abril, J., Joha, J., Lee, J. Y. and Davis, I. (2024) Optimization of hybridization chain reaction for imaging single RNA molecules in Drosophila larvae. Fly, 18(1), 2409968. (doi: 10.1080/19336934.2024.2409968) (PMID:39351922)

Lee, J. Y., Gala, D. S., Kiourlappou, M., Olivares-Abril, J., Joha, J., Titlow, J. S., Teodoro, R. O. and Davis, I. (2024) Murine glial protrusion transcripts predict localized Drosophila glial mRNAs involved in plasticity. Journal of Cell Biology, 223(10), e202306152. (doi: 10.1083/jcb.202306152) (PMID:39037431) (PMCID:PMC11262410)

Lee, J. Y., Huang, N., Samuels, T. J. and Davis, I. (2024) Imp and Syp in vivo temporal RNA interactomes uncover networks of temporal regulators of Drosophila brain development. bioRxiv, (doi: 10.1101/2024.06.30.600407)

Chapple, K. J. et al. (2024) A myelinic channel system for motor-driven organelle transport. bioRxiv, (doi: 10.1101/2024.06.02.591488)

Mangione, F., Titlow, J., Maclachlan, C., Gho, M., Davis, I. , Collinson, L. and Tapon, N. (2024) Author Correction: Co-option of epidermal cells enables touch sensing. Nature Cell Biology, 26(1), p. 170. (doi: 10.1038/s41556-023-01326-2) (PMID:38057364) (PMCID:PMC10791575)

2023

Wang, J. et al. (2023) Deep super-resolution imaging of thick tissue using structured illumination with adaptive optics. bioRxiv, (doi: 10.1101/2023.12.21.572818)

Hu, Q. et al. (2023) Universal adaptive optics for microscopy through embedded neural network control. Light: Science and Applications, 12, 270. (doi: 10.1038/s41377-023-01297-x) (PMID:37953294) (PMCID:PMC10641083)

Garcia-Moreno, M. et al. (2023) Incorporation of genome-bound cellular proteins into HIV-1 particles regulates viral infection. bioRxiv, (doi: 10.1101/2023.06.14.544764)

Titlow, J. S. et al. (2023) Systematic analysis of YFP traps reveals common mRNA/protein discordance in neural tissues. Journal of Cell Biology, 222(6), e202205129. (doi: 10.1083/jcb.202205129) (PMID:37145332) (PMCID:PMC10165541)

Hu, Q. et al. (2023) Universal adaptive optics for microscopy through embedded neural network control [v.3]. arXiv,

Mangione, F., Titlow, J., Maclachlan, C., Gho, M., Davis, I. , Collinson, L. and Tapon, N. (2023) Co-option of epidermal cells enables touch sensing. Nature Cell Biology, 25(4), pp. 540-549. (doi: 10.1038/s41556-023-01110-2) (PMID:36959505) (PMCID:PMC10104782)

Gala, D. S., Titlow, J. S., Teodoro, R. O. and Davis, I. (2023) Far from home: the role of glial mRNA localization in synaptic plasticity. RNA, 29(2), pp. 153-169. (doi: 10.1261/rna.079422.122) (PMID:36442969) (PMCID:PMC9891262)

Thompson, M. K., Ceccarelli, A., Ish-Horowicz, D. and Davis, I. (2023) Dynamically regulated transcription factors are encoded by highly unstable mRNAs in the Drosophila larval brain. RNA, 29(7), pp. 1020-1032. (doi: 10.1261/rna.079552.122) (PMID:37041032) (PMCID:PMC10275270)

2022

Xia, J., Pinto-Fernández, A., Damianou, A., Lee, J. Y., Kessler, B. M., Davis, I. , Elliott, P. and Ligoxygakis, P. (2022) Sex-specific deubiquitylation drives immune-related neurodegeneration in Drosophila. bioRxiv, (doi: 10.1101/2022.12.09.519782)

Lee, J. Y. et al. (2022) Absolute quantitation of individual SARS-CoV-2 RNA molecules provides a new paradigm for infection dynamics and variant differences. eLife, 11, e74153. (doi: 10.7554/eLife.74153) (PMID:35049501) (PMCID:PMC8776252)

Phillips, M. A. et al. (2022) Microscope-Cockpit: Python-based bespoke microscopy for bio-medical science. Wellcome Open Research, 6, 76. (doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16610.1) (PMID:37283605) (PMCID:PMC10240544)

2021

Wickenhagen, A. et al. (2021) A prenylated dsRNA sensor protects against severe COVID-19. Science, 374(6567), eabj3624. (doi: 10.1126/science.abj3624) (PMID:34581622) (PMCID:PMC7612834)

Susano Pinto, D. M., Phillips, M. A., Hall, N., Mateos-Langerak, J., Stoychev, D., Susano Pinto, T., Booth, M. J., Davis, I. and Dobbie, I. M. (2021) Python-Microscope – a new open-source Python library for the control of microscopes. Journal of Cell Science, 134(19), jcs258955. (doi: 10.1242/jcs.258955) (PMID:34448002) (PMCID:PMC8520730)

Kamel, W. et al. (2021) Global analysis of protein-RNA interactions in SARS-CoV-2 infected cells reveals key regulators of infection. Molecular Cell, 81(13), 2851-2867.e7. (doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2021.05.023) (PMID:34118193) (PMCID:PMC8142890)

Wing, P. A.C. et al. (2021) Hypoxic and pharmacological activation of HIF inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection of lung epithelial cells. Cell Reports, 35(3), 109020. (doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109020) (PMID:33852916) (PMCID:PMC8020087)

Mitchell, J., Smith, C. S., Titlow, J., Otto, N., van Velde, P., Booth, M., Davis, I. and Waddell, S. (2021) Selective dendritic localization of mRNA in Drosophila mushroom body output neurons. eLife, 10, e62770. (doi: 10.7554/eLife.62770) (PMID:33724180) (PMCID:PMC8004107)

2020

Truman, C. T.-S., Järvelin, A., Davis, I. and Castello, A. (2020) HIV rev-isited. Open Biology, 10(12), 200320. (doi: 10.1098/rsob.200320) (PMID:33352061) (PMCID:PMC7776567)

Kounatidis, I. et al. (2020) 3D correlative cryo-structured illumination fluorescence and soft X-ray microscopy elucidates reovirus intracellular release pathway. Cell, 182(2), 515-530.e17. (doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.05.051) (PMID:32610083) (PMCID:PMC7391008)

Phillips, M. A. et al. (2020) CryoSIM: super-resolution 3D structured illumination cryogenic fluorescence microscopy for correlated ultrastructural imaging. Optica, 7(7), pp. 802-812. (doi: 10.1364/optica.393203) (PMID:34277893) (PMCID:PMC8262592)

Hailstone, M., Waithe, D., Samuels, T. J., Yang, L., Costello, I., Arava, Y., Robertson, E., Parton, R. M. and Davis, I. (2020) CytoCensus, mapping cell identity and division in tissues and organs using machine learning. eLife, 9, e51085. (doi: 10.7554/eLife.51085) (PMID:32423529) (PMCID:PMC7237217)

Samuels, T. J., Arava, Y., Järvelin, A. I., Robertson, F., Lee, J. Y., Yang, L., Yang, C.-P., Lee, T., Ish-Horowicz, D. and Davis, I. (2020) Neuronal upregulation of Prospero protein is driven by alternative mRNA polyadenylation and Syncrip-mediated mRNA stabilisation. Biology Open, 9(5), bio049684. (doi: 10.1242/bio.049684) (PMID:32205310) (PMCID:PMC7225087)

Samuels, T. J., Järvelin, A. I., Ish-Horowicz, D. and Davis, I. (2020) Imp/IGF2BP levels modulate individual neural stem cell growth and division through myc mRNA stability. eLife, 9, e51529. (doi: 10.7554/eLife.51529) (PMID:31934860) (PMCID:PMC7025822)

Titlow, J., Robertson, F., Järvelin, A., Ish-Horowicz, D., Smith, C., Gratton, E. and Davis, I. (2020) Syncrip/hnRNP Q is required for activity-induced Msp300/Nesprin-1 expression and new synapse formation. Journal of Cell Biology, 219(3), e201903135. (doi: 10.1083/jcb.201903135) (PMID:32040548) (PMCID:PMC7055005)

2019

Harrison, J. U., Parton, R. M., Davis, I. and Baker, R. E. (2019) Testing models of mRNA localization reveals robustness regulated by reducing transport between cells. Biophysical Journal, 117(11), pp. 2154-2165. (doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2019.10.025) (PMID:31708163) (PMCID:PMC6895595)

Vaz, F., Kounatidis, I., Covas, G., Parton, R. M., Harkiolaki, M., Davis, I. , Filipe, S. R. and Ligoxygakis, P. (2019) Accessibility to peptidoglycan is important for the recognition of gram-positive bacteria in Drosophila. Cell Reports, 27(8), 2480-2492.e6. (doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.04.103) (PMID:31116990) (PMCID:PMC6533200)

Žurauskas, M., Dobbie, I. M., Parton, R. M., Phillips, M. A., Göhler, A., Davis, I. and Booth, M. J. (2019) IsoSense: frequency enhanced sensorless adaptive optics through structured illumination. Optics Express, 6(3), pp. 370-379. (doi: 10.1364/optica.6.000370) (PMID:31417942) (PMCID:PMC6683765)

Garcia-Moreno, M. et al. (2019) System-wide profiling of RNA-binding proteins uncovers key regulators of virus infection. Molecular Cell, 74(1), pp. 196-211. (doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2019.01.017) (PMID:30799147) (PMCID:PMC6458987)

2018

Titlow, J. S., Yang, L., Parton, R. M., Palanca, A. and Davis, I. (2018) Super-resolution single molecule FISH at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction. In: Gerst, J. E. (ed.) RNA Detection and Visualization. Series: Methods in molecular biology (1649). Humana Press, pp. 163-175. (doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-7213-5_10)