Raymond Dingledine

Raymond J Dingledine (born December 17, 1948) is an American pharmacologist and neurobiologist who has made contributions to the field of epilepsy. He serves as professor in the School of Medicine at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, where he chaired the pharmacology department for 25 years and served as executive associate dean of research for 10 years.

Education Dingledine grew up in St. Marys, Ohio, a small town bordering Grand Lake St. Marys. He graduated from Michigan State University with a B.S. in biochemistry in 1971, and from Stanford University with a PhD in pharmacology in 1975. His PhD training was under Avram Goldstein. Pyrefin Inc was founded in 2019 to develop novel anti-inflammatory drugs to combat cognitive decline and post-operative pain; he chairs Pyrefin’s Board of Directors. He is an inventor of record for 12 awarded patents.

Research and work His early research focused on the modulation of glutamate receptor-mediated synaptic transmission. During this period he and his team discovered that glycine is a coagonist rather than modulator of NMDA receptors, that shrinkage of extracellular space mediates the transition between interictal and ictal states in the high potassium model of seizures, that a single amino acid residue controls calcium permeation in glutamate receptor channels, and that ifenprodil analogs inhibit NMDA receptors by increasing the sensitivity of receptors to proton inhibition. His current research focuses on the myriad roles of neuroinflammation in neurologic disorders. He demonstrated a profound role for EP2 receptor activation by prostaglandin E2 in COX-2 related pathologies. His work highlights the importance of neuroinflammation in epilepsy.

Awards and honors Dingledine was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine in 2010, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 2018, and the National Academy of Inventors in 2022. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 2003, a Fellow of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 2020, and a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society in 2024. His early career was profiled in Nature Medicine in 2002. He received the Bristol-Myers Squibb Neuroscience Award in 1989 and again in 1993, the epilepsy basic research award from the American Epilepsy Society in 1995, a Javits Neuroscience Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in 1998, the PhRMA Foundation Career Award in Excellence in 1999, the Robert R Ruffolo Career Achievement Award from the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in 2018., and the Julius Axelrod Prize from the Society for Neuroscience in 2023. Two endowed prizes have been established in his name, the Ray Dingledine Award for Extraordinary Graduate Achievement in 2018, and the Ray Dingledine award for research impact in 2020.

Personal life Dingledine is married to Sherry Edwards and has two sons, Brian and Roger.

Publications Selected papers