David Garcia and researchers in his lab examine the molecular activities of abnormal, or prion, proteins, and epigenetic traits that influence how a cell responds to stress and new environments, which has major impacts on its evolutionary success, and its ability to transform into diseased states. In 2022, he received an NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford after earning his PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the UO faculty in 2018.