ReachMD

Dr. David A. Pearce is director of the Sanford Children's Health Research Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dr. Pearce completed his undergraduate BS degree with honors in biological sciences at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in the United Kingdom, followed by a PhD in biochemistry at the University of Bath and postdoctoral training at the University of Rochester and Oxford University. Dr. Pearce currently serves as associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics and of neurology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, New York.

Dr. Pearce is recognized internationally as a leader in Juvenile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (Batten disease) research. He is responsible for the establishment of the Batten Disease Diagnostic and Clinical Research Center at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He originally established a yeast model to study the function of the same protein, CLN3, that is defective in JNCL, desginated Btn1p. This system is expediting the understanding of the function of the CNL3 protein.

Dr. Pearce's lab is also the leading group in characterizing the mouse model for JNCL with the aim of establishing a more detailed understanding of the pathological progression of JNCL; more recently, these studies have identified the basis for clinical trials for Batten disease. Dr. Pearce has chaired the Batten Disease Support and Research Association Scientific Advisory Committee since 2000 and has served on numerous National Institutes of Health review panels.