“My favorite subject in high school was physics,” shares Jamaine Davis, assistant professor of biochemistry and cancer biology at Meharry Medical College. “One day my physics teacher Mr. Jensky pulled me to the side and told me he entered me and another student into a regional competition to see whose small car or device would travel furthest using a mouse trap [for propulsion]. While difficult to comprehend at first, it fascinated me to witness all the ingenuity of the students from around Long Island.”
Davis naturally excelled in math and science as a student, which led him to major in chemical engineering as an undergraduate at Drexel University. At the time, most chemical engineers ended up working in chemical processing plants, but Davis decided that he wanted to integrate biomedical research into his training. “Luckily, within my network of friends, I found a position as a lab technician working with Dr. Jacqueline Tanaka who studies photoreceptor channel activation by cyclic nucleotides. This led me to take a position as a research technician and explore the fascinating field of biophysics,” he says. “Once I witnessed the dynamics of a research career — and especially an academic career — I knew it was what I wanted to pursue.” After working as a lab technician for a few years, and with Tanaka’s encouragement, he decided to pursue a doctoral degree.
He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biophysics in 2007. “Studying proteins and enzymes in graduate school made me curious to understand how protein structure relates to function. Therefore, I decided to become trained in X-ray crystallography and joined the Macromolecular Crystallography Lab at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, working with Dr. Alex Wlodawer,” Davis says.
Following his postdoctoral appointment, he began his faculty position at Meharry Medical College. “I noticed rather quickly that clinical and translational researchers — and even cell biologists — speak a completely different language from structural biologists. This seemed rather odd since both fields ultimately want the same thing: [to] identify new drugs to understand how they work and help save lives,” he says. “This made me focus on how a protein crystallographer can bridge this gap and so I am part of an emerging field of personalized structural biology. Medicine is rapidly advancing toward treating the individual patient and not the general disease. The integration of structural biophysics with protein dynamics and translational medicine will advance understanding of the energetics and kinetics of molecular interaction between drugs and biomolecular targets.”
This interdisciplinary approach to medicine requires an understanding of the genetic background of each patient in order to prescribe the right drug for the right person. Understanding this led Davis to explore how his research, with his background in enzymology, protein chemistry, structural and cellular biology, could fit into the realm of personalized medicine. “At Meharry Medical College we seek to improve the health and healthcare of minority and underserved communities, and therefore aspects of my research explore observable biological differences among racial and ethnic groups in tumors,” he explains. “I am also a member of the Center for Structural Biology at Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt is one of the few research institutions with a dedicated focus on personalized structural biology. Therefore, my research program has evolved to incorporate the strengths of both institutions.” Specifically, the projects in Davis’s laboratory investigate structural mechanisms of genome maintenance in chemoresistant cancers, with the goal of defining novel targets for anti-cancer therapies.
“We both have a keen interest in the emerging area of personalized biochemistry and biophysics. Jamaine is especially interested in BRCA1 gene variations, associated molecular disease mechanisms, and why they disproportionately impact women of African descent,” shares Chuck Sanders, associate dean for research in the basic sciences and professor of biochemistry at Vanderbilt and Davis’s friend and mentor. “Jamaine brings to the table a great vision for conducting biochemistry and biophysics with a keen eye on the long-term benefits to society that result from research progress. He is fearless when it comes to learning how to adapt new approaches to old problems.”
The biggest challenge of Davis’s career thus far has been defining such an integrative field. “Clinicians generally do not understand protein dynamics or behavior. This was apparent when I recently gave a talk to an audience of mostly clinicians. The take home message from one slide was to illustrate that proteins are dynamic and have movement, which are intermediate states that we need to appreciate because genetic variants can affect this ‘normal’ behavior. Within the slide was a short clip showing the dynamics of protein movement, so it was a protein flopping around C-terminal end,” he explains. “One clinician, whom I admire, asked if I could stop the clip from playing because it was distracting. I thought it was funny but highlighted some of the differences across the fields. This made me really analyze how people outside of structural biology and biophysics interpret protein structures. I now try to emphasize the fundamentals so they can truly appreciate the biophysics. The availability of drugs to bind to their known target (which are largely proteins) depends on the ability of the protein to move and adjust to make that binding site accessible.”
"Sometimes as students we get a little discouraged, and he has an uncanny way of reminding us why we started and why science is so exciting."
- Deneshia McIntosh
Outside of the scientific community, Davis expresses a great admiration for activists Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors. “These phenomenal people are the founders of the international activist movement Black Lives Matter. There is scientific evidence that black Americans are systematically disenfranchised throughout society, in education, the workplace, by law enforcement, and in the justice system. Black Lives Matter campaigns against violence and systematic racism toward black people,” he explains. “One of the most important questions to address is, why is there a need to state that Black Lives Matter? I admire these women because they have established an intervention to this systematic disenfranchisement based on scientific evidence.”
The most rewarding aspect of the work for Davis is the opportunity to meet smart and creative people: students, faculty, and people in the community. One such person is Deneshia McIntosh, an MD-PhD candidate at Meharry who Davis has mentored following the passing of her thesis mentor last year. “Dr. Davis is the kind of colleague that most students are looking to interact with,” McIntosh shares. “He has a way of making people excited about science. Sometimes as students we get a little discouraged, and he has an uncanny way of reminding us why we started and why science is so exciting. He constantly reminds me that I am a scientist and that I am more than capable of thinking on my own.”
Davis encourages students and young scientists to think outside the box. “I am amazed at some of the innovative thinkers within, as well as outside, my field.”