Josh Dubnau

Josh Dubnau is a neuroscientist and geneticist. He is a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Stony Brook University, where he also directs the Center for Developmental Genetics. His research uses the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism, first to study the genetics and neural circuitry of learning and memory, and later to investigate the role of mobile retrotransposable elements and endogenous retroviruses in age-related neurodegeneration.

Education and career Dubnau studied at Columbia University from 1989 to 1995, earning a PhD in genetics and development for work on Drosophila developmental genetics with Gary Struhl. remaining on the faculty until 2016. The International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society lists Dubnau as one of its past presidents (2011–2014).

Research Dubnau's early work at CSHL examined the anatomy and molecular genetics of olfactory memory in Drosophila. In a 2001 study published in Nature, Dubnau and colleagues used a temperature-sensitive dynamin transgene to reversibly block synaptic transmission and reported that neurotransmission in the mushroom body is required for the retrieval of olfactory memory but not for its acquisition or storage. His group also carried out genome-wide screens for genes involved in long-term memory, identifying the staufen/pumilio pathway as a component of memory consolidation.

Dubnau later shifted toward the study of endogenous retrotransposons in the aging brain and in neurodegenerative disease. His laboratory has reported evidence that retrotransposon activation contributes to neurodegeneration in Drosophila models of TDP-43 proteinopathy, linking this mechanism to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia. In 2024, Dubnau and Bess Frost published a review in the Annual Review of Neuroscience on retrotransposons and endogenous retroviruses in age-dependent neurodegenerative disorders.

Awards and recognition Dubnau received a Beckman Young Investigator Award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. He also received a Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award.

Activism & public advocacy Alongside his scientific work, Dubnau has taken part in pro-Palestinian and academic-freedom activism. In May 2024, he was among faculty members arrested during a pro-Palestinian encampment protest at Stony Brook University and was subsequently arraigned on a disorderly conduct charge. He supported a Stony Brook Faculty Senate resolution calling for charges against arrested students and faculty to be dropped. The charges were later resolved through an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, under which they would be dismissed provided those charged were not rearrested within six months.

In March 2025, he was quoted by CBS New York at a Jewish Voice for Peace sit-in at Trump Tower protesting the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, and in May 2025 he led a group of Columbia University Jewish alumni who protested outside the university's commencement over its policies on Israel and pro-Palestinian speech.

Selected publications