Professor of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology
Faculty Advisor to the CIO
David MacAlpine has been a member of Duke's faculty since 2006, where he is a Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology in the School of Medicine. He leads an NIH-funded research program on chromatin structure, DNA replication, and the epigenetic mechanisms that preserve genome stability, using a combination of genomic, computational, and biochemical approaches. He also serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the Pharmacology and Cancer Biology program.
As Faculty Advisor to the CIO, David brings the faculty perspective to Duke's technology strategy, working with the chief information officer and OIT leadership to align emerging technology with the university's teaching and research missions. He champions innovation, helping Duke balance security, compliance, and cost with the freedom researchers need to make discoveries. Much of his recent focus has been on artificial intelligence, helping Duke harness this rapidly evolving technology so that students, staff, and faculty can use it to advance their work. He co-authored Duke's Generative AI Acceptable Use Policy, a principles-based framework, and developed Devil's Advocate, an AI-powered tool that helps faculty strengthen grant proposals and navigate increasingly complex federal compliance requirements. A longtime advocate for putting capable, trustworthy computing in the hands of researchers, he continues to work across campus to keep Duke at the leading edge of its academic mission.