Josh Dubnau

Josh Dubnau
Alma materColumbia University (PhD, 1995)
Known forGenetics of Drosophila learning and memory; retrotransposon activation in neurodegeneration
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience, Genetics
Workplaces
Gary Struhl

Josh Dubnau is a neuroscientist and geneticist. He is a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Stony Brook University, where he also directs the Center for Developmental Genetics.[1][2] His research uses the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, first to study the genetics and neural circuitry of learning and memory, and later to investigate the role of mobile retrotransposable elements and endogenous retroviruses in age-related neurodegeneration.[3][4]

Education and career

Dubnau studied at Columbia University from 1989 to 1995, earning a PhD in genetics and development for work on Drosophila developmental genetics with Gary Struhl.[3] As an undergraduate, he had studied pheromone perception in the gypsy moth.[1]

From 1995 to 2002, Dubnau carried out postdoctoral research on Drosophila memory formation with Tim Tully at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL).[3] He established his own research group at CSHL in 2002[1] and rose to the rank of associate professor,[5][6] remaining on the faculty until 2016.[3] In 2016, he moved his laboratory to Stony Brook University, where he became a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology with a joint appointment in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior.[1]

At Stony Brook, Dubnau directs the Center for Developmental Genetics.[1][2] He has served on the scientific advisory board of Transposon Therapeutics.[3][7] The International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society lists Dubnau as one of its past presidents (2011–2014).[8]

Research

Dubnau's early work at CSHL examined the anatomy and molecular genetics of olfactory memory in Drosophila. In a 2001 study published in Nature, Dubnau and colleagues used a temperature-sensitive dynamin transgene to reversibly block synaptic transmission and reported that neurotransmission in the mushroom body is required for the retrieval of olfactory memory but not for its acquisition or storage.[9] His group also carried out genome-wide screens for genes involved in long-term memory, identifying the staufen/pumilio pathway as a component of memory consolidation.[10]

Dubnau later shifted toward the study of endogenous retrotransposons in the aging brain and in neurodegenerative disease. His laboratory has reported evidence that retrotransposon activation contributes to neurodegeneration in Drosophila models of TDP-43 proteinopathy, linking this mechanism to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia.[11][4] In 2023, Dubnau and Yung-Heng Chang published a Nature Communications study reporting that endogenous retroviruses and TDP-43 proteinopathy form a feedback process involved in the spread of neurodegeneration in a Drosophila model.[12] In 2024, Dubnau and Bess Frost published a review in the Annual Review of Neuroscience on retrotransposons and endogenous retroviruses in age-dependent neurodegenerative disorders.[13]

Awards and recognition

Dubnau received a Beckman Young Investigator Award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.[14] He also received a Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award.[6] In 2009, CSHL announced that Dubnau and Partha Mitra had received five-year NIH Director's Transformative R01 grants for neuroscience research projects.[15]

Activism & public advocacy

Alongside his scientific work, Dubnau has taken part in pro-Palestinian and academic-freedom activism. In May 2024, he was among faculty members arrested during a pro-Palestinian encampment protest at Stony Brook University and was subsequently arraigned on a disorderly conduct charge.[16] He supported a Stony Brook Faculty Senate resolution calling for charges against arrested students and faculty to be dropped.[17] The charges were later resolved through an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, under which they would be dismissed provided those charged were not rearrested within six months.[18]

In March 2025, he was quoted by CBS New York at a Jewish Voice for Peace sit-in at Trump Tower protesting the detention of Mahmoud Khalil,[19] and in May 2025 he led a group of Columbia University Jewish alumni who protested outside the university's commencement over its policies on Israel and pro-Palestinian speech.[20]

Selected publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Josh Dubnau". Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. Stony Brook University. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Joshua Dubnau, PhD". Renaissance School of Medicine. Stony Brook University. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Dubnau, Josh (2021). "Josh Dubnau". Current Biology. 31 (2): R55–R57. Bibcode:2021CBio...31..R55D. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.11.022. PMID 33497627.
  4. 1 2 "Joshua Dubnau, PhD". Center for Developmental Genetics. Stony Brook University. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  5. ↑ Highlights of the Year 2013 (PDF) (Report). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 2013. p. 5. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  6. 1 2 Dubnau, Josh, ed. (2014). Behavioral Genetics of the Fly (Drosophila melanogaster). Cambridge University Press. Contributor biography. ISBN 978-1-107-00903-5.
  7. ↑ "Advisory Boards". Transposon Therapeutics. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Past Officers and Executive Committee Members". International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  9. ↑ Dubnau, J.; Grady, L.; Kitamoto, T.; Tully, T. (2001). "Disruption of neurotransmission in Drosophila mushroom body blocks retrieval but not acquisition of memory". Nature. 411 (6836): 476–480. Bibcode:2001Natur.411..476D. doi:10.1038/35078077. PMID 11373680.
  10. ↑ Dubnau, J.; Chiang, A.-S.; Grady, L.; et al. (2003). "The staufen/pumilio pathway is involved in Drosophila long-term memory". Current Biology. 13 (4): 286–296. Bibcode:2003CBio...13..286D. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(03)00064-2. PMID 12593794.
  11. ↑ Krug, Lisa; Chatterjee, Nabanita; Borges-Monroy, Rebeca; et al. (2017). "Retrotransposon activation contributes to neurodegeneration in a Drosophila TDP-43 model of ALS". PLOS Genetics. 13 (3) e1006635. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006635. PMC 5354250. PMID 28301478.
  12. ↑ Chang, Yung-Heng; Dubnau, Josh (2023). "Endogenous retroviruses and TDP-43 proteinopathy form a sustaining feedback driving intercellular spread of Drosophila neurodegeneration". Nature Communications. 14 (1) 966. Bibcode:2023NatCo..14..966C. doi:10.1038/s41467-023-36649-z. PMC 9944888. PMID 36810738.
  13. ↑ Frost, Bess; Dubnau, Josh (2024). "The role of retrotransposons and endogenous retroviruses in age-dependent neurodegenerative disorders". Annual Review of Neuroscience. 47 (1): 123–143. doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-082823-020615. PMID 38663088.
  14. ↑ "Awarded Scientists". Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  15. ↑ "Two neuroscientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory awarded "Transformative" NIH Grants". Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. September 24, 2009. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  16. ↑ Jones, Bart (May 21, 2024). "Stony Brook University students, faculty members face charges from pro-Palestinian campus protest". Newsday. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  17. ↑ Jones, Bart (May 7, 2024). "Stony Brook University faculty demands dropping charges against students, professors arrested in pro-Palestinian protest". Newsday. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  18. ↑ "Following arrests, pro-Palestinian protestors at Stony Brook will have charges dropped". WSHU Public Radio. June 10, 2024. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  19. ↑ Zanger, Jesse; Rozner, Lisa (March 13, 2025). "Protest at NYC's Trump Tower in support of Mahmoud Khalil ends with 98 arrests, police say". CBS New York. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
  20. ↑ Beckett, Lois (May 31, 2025). "Jewish organizers are increasingly confronting Trump: 'The repression is growing, but so is the resistance'". The Guardian. Retrieved July 7, 2026.
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