NYU Abu Dhabi Professor Awarded Prestigious Edwin G. Conklin Medal in Developmental Biology

Claude Desplan is a geneticist who studies how the brain develops.

Press Release

NYU Abu Dhabi Professor of Biology Claude Desplan has received the 2020 Edwin G. Conklin Medal in the field of developmental biology.

Presented by the Society for Developmental Biology, the Edwin G. Conklin Medal, established in 1995 and awarded annually, recognizes a developmental biologist for continuously making extraordinary research contributions, and for being an excellent mentor who has helped train the next generation of outstanding scientists. 

Desplan studies how the brain develops, and in particular how the many different types of neurons acquire their distinct properties and connect to each other to form neural circuits. He focuses his attention on the visual system that processes information coming from the eye and guides behavioral responses. His work has shown that neural stem cells produce different neurons over time ,thus allowing the brain to form is an ordered manner. He is also studying how the mechanisms uncovered evolve in different species to allow them to adapt to their environment.

“As scientists, we do want our work to be recognized, especially when it is basic research that does not receive attention from the media," Desplan said. "This medal is given by the board of the scientific society of developmental biology and recognition by the pairs is the most gratifying. This will also reflect on present and past lab members in New York and in Abu Dhabi who have contributed to the success of the lab."

Also a Silver Professor at NYU New York, Desplan is a geneticist who spent his scientific life analyzing molecular and genetic mechanisms controlling cell fate decisions and their evolution. He pursued his PhD in France and his postdoctoral studies at the University of California San Francisco.

His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that pattern Drosophila photoreceptors responsible for color vision, the complex transcription factor network that controls the specification of the various types of photoreceptors, and how color information is processed in the optic lobes by investigating their development and function, among others.

Desplan serves on multiple scientific advisory boards and funding agencies. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected foreign member of the European Molecular Biology Organization, and an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Learn more about research at the NYU Abu Dhabi Center for Genomics and Systems Biology.


About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective undergraduate curriculum across the disciplines with a world center for advanced research and scholarship. The university enables its students in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and arts to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from over 115 countries and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.