After studying medicine at Cambridge, he was caught up in the molecular biology revolution and switched to pure science.
After working on gene regulation and integration of lambda bacteriophage, he moved into eukaryotes.
He also made a series of key contributions to molecular biology of filamentous fungal systems. These included the first transfection method and mitochondrial genome structure.
Professor Davies’ group discovered fungal self-splicing introns and he published the first secondary structure of a ribozyme, and the internal guide sequence model for splice-site selection. For this work he was elected a member of EMBO.
He then moved into the biotech industry as Vice-President for Science of Canada’s Allelix Biopharmaceuticals.
His academic work since returning to the UK has focussed on molecular neuroscience (neurodegeneration mechanisms, CNS myelin studies) and more recently on tissue ageing and the role of stem cells.
As Professor of Biotechnology at the University of Glasgow, Professor Davies saw his role as developing applied science, licensing opportunities and spin-out companies.
With colleagues he spun out Neuropa Ltd and was its CEO for five years. He was then seconded as CEO of Sweden’s UmanGenomics AB for two years.
Professor Davies’ involvement with the University of Edinburgh and Informatics began when he joined Douglas Armstrong in developing the Brainwave project into a commercial venture.
This will result in the spinning out of Brainwave-Discovery Ltd, which will provide custom assay development services for the pharmaceutical industry.
It will also develop novel technology platforms for CNS drug discovery.