Robert A. Davey, PhD is Professor of Microbiology and Director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) at Boston University. Trained at the University of Adelaide and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Davey is a globally recognized virologist whose work integrates high-containment virology with advanced drug discovery to address high-consequence viral threats. His research has directly informed FDA-regulated studies and contributed to the approval of the first antibody therapy for Ebola virus disease. Dr. Davey leads a multidisciplinary team at NEIDL dedicated to identifying and validating host-directed antiviral strategies through systems virology, proteomics, and high-throughput screening under BSL-3 and BSL-4 conditions. His group combines mechanism-based phenotyping platforms, including BioID-based interactomics, pooled optical screening, and single-cell transcriptomics, to map key virus-host interactions and accelerate therapeutic development with reduced reliance on traditional animal models. Recent publications in Nature Communications, Cell Host & Microbe, and Nature Microbiology highlight his team’s advances in defining molecular targets for pan-viral intervention. As Director of NEIDL, Dr. Davey is expanding national capacity for regulated biocontainment research and advancing new frameworks for ethical, effective translational models aligned with animal testing reduction. He oversees programs that combine traditional in vivo models with alternative human tissue models and organoid systems to ensure mechanistic rigor and regulatory relevance.