David Kaplan

Research Synopsis

Kaplan shares a lab with his wife, Freda Miller, working on how stem cells build and maintain the brain, and discovering drugs that mobilize our stem cells to enhance and repair the aging or injured brain and skin and to treat childhood cancers.

He is best known for co-discovering, as a graduate student, the signalling protein PI3-kinase (Cell 1987) and discovering the Trk/Nerve Growth Factor receptor when his lab was at the NIH (Nature, Science 1990). He has published almost 200 research papers with over 40,000 citations. David, with Freda, founded the biotechnology companies Exogen Neurosciences, Aegera Therapeutics, and Reveille Inc. to bring their research discoveries in the cancer, nerve degeneration, and stem cell fields to the clinic. David moved to Canada 20 years ago, attracted to the promised land of collaboration, great trainees, and perfect weather.