David E. Clapham, MD, PhD, is a senior group leader at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus. His current work is centered on primary cilia in brain and kidney, and novel ion channels in mitochondria.

Dr. Clapham interests are the physiology of cells, in particular the study of intracellular calcium and discovery and characterization of ion channels. Past work included the discovery of the novel role of G protein beta gamma subunits in regulating cardiac potassium channels and on waves of intracellular calcium. He and his lab identified several of the transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channels and characterized their functions. He had also identified and elucidated the structure and function of novel ion channels (sperm CatSpers1-4 and accessory subunits, the mitochondrial calcium channel, voltage-gated sodium channels in bacteria (NaChBAC), lysosomal ion channels, and cilia ion channels. 

Dr. Clapham received his undergraduate education at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he studied Electrical Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. and M.D. degree at Emory University and completed residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He was a postdoctoral research fellow supported by a Fulbright Award in the laboratory of Dr. Erwin Neher at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany. In 1997 he was selected as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and in 2001 was appointed the Aldo R. Castañeda Professor of Cardiovascular Research. He was also the Director of the Basic Cardiovascular Research Laboratories at Children’s Hospital Boston. From 2016 to 2022 he was VP and Chief Scientific Officer of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. 

In addition to his institutional positions, Dr. Clapham served on the editorial boards of Science, Cell, Neuron, eLife, PNAS, the J. Gen. Physiol, and was co-editor of the Ann. Rev. of Physiol. He chaired the Physiology Study Section of the NIH, was President of the Society of General Physiologists, and is a Member of the Corporation of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Dr. Clapham received the Cole Award of the Biophysical Society for Contributions to Membrane Biophysics in 1995, the Basic Science Award of the American Heart Association in 1996, and the Bristol Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cardiovascular Research in 2006. Dr. Clapham was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000, to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006, as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2008, and to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021. In 2013 he received the Harvard Medical School William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award.