David S Ragsdale
Associate Professor
PhD
Associate Member, Department of Physiology
Member, McGill Centre for Medical Education
David Ragsdale obtained his B.Sc. in psychology (1982) from the University of Illinois. He went on to acquire his PhD (1989) from the University of California in the Department of Psychobiology. His postdoctoral studies (1990-1995) were carried out at the University of Washington in the Department of Pharmacology.
Dr. Ragsdale’s work focuses on improving the teaching and learning of neuroscience at McGill. To that end, he teaches courses for undergraduate, graduate and medical students on topics ranging from cell and molecular neuroscience to neuroanatomy and philosophy of mind. As a member of the Faculty of Medicine Faculty Development Team and in collaboration with McGill Teaching and Learning Services, he conducts workshops and other activities for McGill faculty on best practices in teaching, student assessment and graduate student supervision. Dr. Ragsdale is former associate director of McGill’s cross-disciplinary neuroscience graduate program, the Integrated Program in Neuroscience, a member of the McGill Institute for Health Science Research, and serves as the Deputy University Research Integrity Officer. Dr. Ragsdale has received several teaching awards including the Faculty of Medicine Honour List for Teaching Excellence, the Canadian Association for Medical Education Certificate of Merit, and the McGill Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Ragsdale, D.S., McPhee, J.C., Scheuer, T., and Catterall, W.A. Molecular determinants of state-dependent block of Na+ channels by local anesthetics. Science 265:1724-1728 (1994).
Li, H.-L., Galue, A., Meadows, L., and Ragsdale, D.S. A molecular basis for the different local anesthetic affinities of resting versus open and inactivated states of the sodium channel. Mol. Pharmacol. 55:134-141 (1999).
Magistretti, J., Ragsdale, D.S., and Alonso, A. Direct demonstration of persistent Na+ channel activity in dendritic processes of mammalian cortical neurons. J. Physiol. 521:629-636 (1999).
Meadows, L.S., Malhotra, J., Loukas, A., Thyagarajan, V., Kazen-Gillespie, K.A., Koopman, M.C., Kriegler, S., Isom, L.L., Ragsdale, D.S.* Functional and biochemical analysis of a sodium channel 1 subunit mutation responsible for generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus type 1. J. Neurosci. 22:10699-10709 (2002).
Cossette, P., Loukas, A†., LaFrenière, R.G., Rochefort, D., Ragsdale, D.S., Dunn R., Rouleau, G.A. Functional characterization of the D188V mutation in the neuronal voltage-gated sodium channel causing generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus. Epilepsy Res. 53:107-117 (2003).
Ragsdale D.S. How do mutant Nav1.1 sodium channels cause epilepsy? Brain Res. Rev. 58: 149-159 (2008).