Ralph J. Greenspan, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Kavli Institute for Mind and Brain

Co-Director, Cal-BRAIN

Director, Center for Brain Activity Mapping
Professor in Residence, Neurobiology Section/Division of Biology and Dept. of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, San Diego

Adjunct Professor of Systems Neuroscience, College of Life Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Associate Investigator, Centro Interdiscilpinario de Neurociencia de Valparaíso, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile
International Faculty, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai, China

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

Dr. Greenspan began working on the genetic and neurobiological basis of behavior in the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) as a graduate student  with one of the field’s founders, Jeffery Hall, at Brandeis University.  His work has ranged from the genetic control of nervous system development in the fruit fly and mouse, to genetic, molecular and neurobiological studies of innate and learned behaviors in the fruit fly. In the course of this work, he has pioneered several new approaches in the fruit fly that have had important implications for mammalian neurobiology, including: the demonstration that the fruit fly has a sleep-like behavior similar to that of mammals, studies of physiological and behavioral consequences of mutations in a neurotransmitter system affecting one of the brain's principal chemical signals, studies making highly localized genetic alterations in the nervous system to alter behavior, and molecular identification of genes causing naturally occurring variation in behavior.

" One of my main interests currently is to understand the role of network level activity in the nervous system and among the genes, motivated by a strong belief that the state of these networks is of major importance in determining behavior.  Who knows, there may even be a unifying principle for the operation of biological networks, one that cuts across phylogeny and type of network.  Such a discovery could revolutionize the natural sciences. "