Daniel Gray is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles in the laboratory of Lindsay De Biase. He received his B.S. in psychology from the University of California, Davis and his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Arizona, where he worked under Carol Barnes.
The overarching goal of Gray’s work is to distinguish age-related changes in neurobiological function that represent primary vulnerabilities from those that emerge in adaptive response to them. Throughout his career, he has led multiple studies combining neuroanatomical, electrophysiological and behavioral techniques in aging nonhuman primate and rodent models that have identified numerous factors associated with preserved cognitive and sensory function in the healthy aged brain. His ongoing research combines behavioral, imaging-based, transcriptomic and proteomic approaches to understand how neuron-extrinsic factors in the brain, including glial cell physiology and extracellular matrix composition, impact synapse function and cognitive aging outcomes.
Gray has received several awards and honors throughout his career, including the American Aging Association (AGE) Early Career Scholar Award, the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute Boyer/Parvin Postdoctoral Research Award, and the Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award at the University of Arizona.