David Bauer

David was a Legacy Winner in 2005 from the Intel Science Talent Search. Since then, he’s finished an undergrad degree in Chemistry from the City College of New York and a DPhil in Clinical Medicine at Oxford, and currently serves on the Creativity Foundation’s Junto.

David is currently an E.P. Abraham Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College, Oxford, working with the Department of Physics & the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology. His research “creatively' borrows tools from physics and biotech in order to study the critical first step in carrying out “life as we know it”: DNA transcription. In all living organisms – from bacteria, to yeast and humans – the first step in carrying out the instructions contained within a gene (DNA) is to create a transcript of the gene (RNA) that functions as a 'working copy’ for a cell to carry out the gene’s instructions (such as making a protein). These first steps, and the enzymes that carry them out, are key targets for new antibiotic and antiviral drugs in the future.

Outside of the lab, David manages manages to do some gardening, learn foreign languages, and bake a cake or two!