Dame Kay Davies DBE FMedSci FRS

Kay Davies is the Dr Lee’s Professor of Anatomy in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and Director of the MRC Functional Genomics Unit at the University of Oxford. Her research interests lie in the molecular analysis and development of treatments for human genetic diseases, particularly Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and the application of genomics for the analysis of neurological disorders and gene–environment interactions.

She has published more than 400 papers and won numerous awards for her work. Kay is a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003. She has been a Governor of the Wellcome Trust since 2008 and became Deputy Chairman in 2013. She was the recipient of the Women in to Science and Engineering (WISE) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014, and was made Dame Commander of the British Empire for services to science in 2008.

Professional position

  • Honorary Director, MRC Functional Genomics Unit, University of Oxford
  • Dr Lee’s Professor of Anatomy, Department Of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford

Subject groups

  • Other

    Public understanding of science

  • Biochemistry and molecular cell biology

    Biochemistry and molecular biology

  • Microbiology, immunology and developmental biology

    Genetics (excluding population genetics)Genetics (excluding population genetics)

  • Anatomy, physiology and neurosciences

    Animal (especially mammalian) and human physiology and anatomy (non-clinical), Cellular neuroscience

  • Health and human sciences

    Molecular medicine

Awards

  • Croonian Medal and Lecture

    For her achievements in developing a prenatal test for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and for her work characterising the binding partners of the protein dystrophin.

Dame Kay Davies DBE FMedSci FRS
Elected 2003