astronomy

Peter Davies (scientist)

Peter Davies (scientist) is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peter Davies (scientist) rather than just read about it. In short: Peter Davies (1948 - 2020) was a Welsh scientist and researcher who was best known for his work on Alzheimer’s disease. He was the head and director of the Litwin-Zucker Research Center for The Study of Alzheimer's disease and memory disorders, associated with the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, US.

Key takeaways

Peter Davies (scientist) belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peter Davies (scientist) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peter Davies (scientist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Peter Davies (1948 - 2020) was a Welsh scientist and researcher who was best known for his work on Alzheimer’s disease. He was the head and director of the Litwin-Zucker Research Center for The Study of Alzheimer's disease and memory disorders, associated with the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, US.

Education Davies received his BSc (Hons., 1st class) and PhD, both in biochemistry, from the University of Leeds in 1971 and 1974, respectively. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, before joining the staff of the Medical Research Council Brain Metabolism Unit in Edinburgh in 1974, where he began his research on Alzheimer's disease.

Academic appointments In 1977, Davies moved to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York City, where he was an assistant professor from 1977 to 1981, an associate professor from 1981 to 1986, and a full professor starting in 1986. He became the scientific director of the Litwin-Zucker Center for Research on Alzheimer's disease at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, North Shore-LIJ Health System, in 2006.

Principal scientific contributions Davies' research was focused on the biochemistry of Alzheimer's disease with the goal of developing effective therapies. His early work was in the development of the currently approved drugs for Alzheimer's disease: Aricept, Exelon and Razadyne. He was interested in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, and said that the disease may be a process of uncontrolled cell cycle division. He had evidence that the switch that drives the cell cycle of neurons, which is a one-time event when the neuron is born, is somehow tripped and reactivated late in life. He and his team designed an experiment to turn on the cell cycle in laboratory models. They put a viral oncogene into differentiated neurons and watched as pathological events progressed. In 2004 Davies and his collaborators identified a marker in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that can distinguish Alzheimer's disease from normal ageing, and also can discriminate between Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

Awards and honors International Congress on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD) Lifetime Achievement Award Metlife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease (1986) National Institute of Health (NIH) MERIT award NIMH, 1989–1999 National Institute of Health (NIH) MERIT award NIA, 2003–2013 The 2015 Potamkin Prize for research in Pick's, Alzheimer's, and related diseases

Selected publications Hampel H, Buerger K, Zinkowski R, Goernitz A, Teipel SJ, Andreasen N, Sjogren M, DeBernardis J, Kerkman D, Ishiguro K, Ohno H, Vanmechelen E, Vanderstichele H, McCulloch C, Möller HJ, Davies P, Blennow K. "Measurement of phosphorylated tau epitopes in the differential diagnosis of Alzheimer disease – a comparative CSF study", Archives of General Psychiatry, 61; 95–102, 2004 Conrad C. Vianna C. Schultz C. Thal DR. Ghebremedhin E. Lenz J. Braak H. Davies P. "Molecular Evolution and Genetics of the Saitohin Gene and tau haplotype in Alzheimer's Disease and Argyrophilic Grain Disease". J Neurochem, 89, 179–188, 2004. Bargorn S. Davies P. Mandelkow E. "Tau paired helical filaments from Alzheimer's disease brain and assembled in vitro are based on beta-structure in the core domain", Biochemistry 43, 1694–1703, 2004. Andorfer CA. Acker CM. Kress Y. Hof PR. Duff K. Davies P. "Cell Cycle Re-entry and Cell Death in Transgenic Mice Expressing Non-Mutant Human Tau Isoforms", J Neurosci 25; 5446–5454, 2005. Marambaud P. Zhao H. Davies P. "Resveratrol promotes clearance of Alzheimer's disease amyloid-beta peptides", J Biol Chem 280, 37377–37382, 2005. de Leon MJ. DeSanti S. Zinkowski R. Mehta PD. Pratico D. Segala S. Rusinek H. Lia J. Tsui W. Saint Louis LA. Clark CM. Tarshish C. Lia Y. Lair L. Javier E. Rich K. Lesbre P. Mosconi L. Reisberg B. Sadowski M. DeBernadis JF. Kerkman DJ. Hampel H. Wahlund L-O. Davies P. "Longitudinal CSF and MRI biomarkers improve the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment", Neurobiology of Aging 27, 394–401, 2006. d’Abramo C. Ricciarelli R. Pronzato MA. Davies P. "Troglitazone, a Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor-gamma agonist, decreases tau phosphorylation in CHOtau4R cells", J. Neurochem 98, 1068–1077, 2006. Park KHJ. Hallows JL Chakrabarty P Davies P Vincent I. "Conditional neuronal SV40 T Antigen expression induces Alzheimer-like tau and amyloid pathology in mice", J Neurosci 27, 2969–2978, 2007. Espinoza M. de Silva R. Dickson DW. Davies P. "Differential Incorporation of Tau Isoforms in Alzheimer's Disease", Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 14, 1–16, 2008.

Complete list of publications https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GnqJHnwAAAAJ&hl=en

References

External links YouTube Archived 19 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peter Davies (scientist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peter Davies (scientist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peter Davies (scientist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peter Davies (scientist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peter Davies (scientist)

In research: Peter Davies (scientist) appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peter Davies (scientist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peter Davies (scientist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1948 births, 2020 deaths, 20th-century Welsh scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peter Davies (scientist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Peter Davies (scientist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peter Davies (scientist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peter Davies (scientist) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peter Davies (scientist) in simple terms?

Why does Peter Davies (scientist) matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peter Davies (scientist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peter Davies (scientist).