Gavin Rumbaugh, Ph.D.

Professor of Neuroscience

The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Techonology

2024 Awardee

Gavin Rumbaugh has dedicated his life to understanding how brain connections and circuits assemble to enable learning and adaptation, with a focus on genes that cause or increase the risk of severe neuropsychiatric disorders. His work aims to accelerate the development of therapeutic agents that correct impaired brain excitability, improve intellectual abilities and resolve behavioral maladaptation.

Rumbaugh serves as the principal investigator on several National Institutes of Health grants and holds leadership roles in two major NIH-funded projects. He directs a National Cooperative Drug Development Program focused on precision therapeutics for genetic neurodevelopmental disorders. He also co-directs research examining the regulation of neuronal circuits that are relevant to autism and intellectual disability.

“We believe that understanding how druggable targets that regulate the brain’s molecular mechanisms will unlock novel treatments for stroke, age-related cognitive decline, schizophrenia, autism and other severe neurodevelopmental disorders,” Rumbaugh says. 

Throughout his career, Rumbaugh has received numerous accolades, including the prestigious Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences. He was recently nominated to serve a four-year term on the National Advisory Mental Health Council, where he will help to guide funding priorities for the National Institute of Mental Health.

Rumbaugh’s prolific contributions to the fields of cellular neuroscience, neurophysiology, and assay development are evidenced by over 70 published articles and more than $40 million in NIH grants. Rumbaugh earned his doctoral degree from Georgetown University and completed postdoctoral training at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined the Scripps Research Florida faculty in 2009 and was promoted to professor in 2019.

Rumbaugh has a long history of using technologies to study how brain activity that supports thinking and understanding develops over time, says Patrick R. Griffin, a professor of molecular medicine and the scientific director of The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute. 

“Beyond his numerous biological discoveries, he has also demonstrated a keen ability to develop novel drug discovery methodologies, which are required to identify compounds for brain-specific disease targets,” Griffin says.