Alexander Davies, D.V.M, Ph.D.

  • Assistant Professor of Division of Oncological Sciences, School of Medicine
  • Assistant Professor, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Alexander Davies graduated with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a D.V.M., with an interest in comparative oncology, from the University of California, Davis. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in cancer biology at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before joining The Ohio State University as faculty in the Department of Veterinary Biosciences. While at OSU he was a member of the Comprehensive Cancer Center and faculty in the Cancer Biology and Cancer Engineering programs. Currently, Dr. Davies is an Assistant Professor at the Knight Cancer Institute within the Division of Oncological Sciences  where his work focuses on dynamic tumor microenvironment signaling cross-talk, signal integration, and the development of 3D organotypic and living ex vivo tissue models to study these interactions over time using live-cell microscopy techniques.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • D.V.M., 2014, School of Veterinary Medicine / Univeristy of California, Davis
    • Ph.D., 2010, University of California, Davis

  • Fellowship

    • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cancer Biology, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2019.
    • Clinical Fellow, CIRM-UC Berkeley and Children's Hospital of Oakland Human Stem Cell Training Program, 2015.

Memberships and associations:

  • Member, American Association for Cancer Research
  • Member, Children's Oncology Group

Areas of interest

  • ex vivo tissue models, tumor microenvironment and cell signaling dynamics, systems biology

Honors and awards

  • Pfizer & Morris Animal Foundation Veterinary Fellowship, 2010
  • UC Davis Veterinary Education Training for Scientists (VETS) Fellowship, 2010
  • Shandy Scholarship, Radiation Oncology Research Award, 2014
  • Edwards, Florence Hutt, and Benjamin Frank Cancer Research Award, 2013
  • Maxie Hyspire Machrie Cancer Research Scholarship Award, 2013
  • Francis Park Pillsbury Memorial Scholarship Award, 2011

Publications

Elsevier pure profile

Selected publications

  • Spatially Coordinated RTK-ERK Signaling Dynamics Shape Osteosarcoma Single-Cell Drug Response In The Lung Microenvironment. bioRxiv 2026; PMID: 42856637; DOI: 10.64898/2026.09.30.755770. Makkawi R, Halsey C, Murthy V, Manalo EC, Yi X, Cartier JM, Chang M, Flory M, Guptell K, Gross A,  Roberts RD, Copperman J, Davies AE.
  • A Compact, Standalone & Battery-Powered 3D Organoid-on-Chip System with Programmable Flow Control. bioRxiv 2026; PMID: 42620187; DOI: 10.64898/2026.08.02.742326. Thakur R, Murthy V, Olson S, Wolcott E, Budkina D, Anderson F, Zheng T, Wright W, Copperman J, Bertassoni LE, Langer E, Davies AE.
  • Serial Imaging Of Tumor And Microenvironment (SITE) Platform For Live-Cell Ex Vivo Modeling Of Primary And Metastatic Cancer Progression Dynamics. bioRxiv 2026; PMID: 41394745; DOI: 10.1101/2025.09.08.674915. Murthy V, Makkawi R, Anderson F, Halsey C, Manalo-Hall E, Srikanth S, Tangkilisan G, Copperman J, Davies AE.  

Publications