Roger J. Colbran was trained as a biochemist at the Universities of Bristol and of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK, receiving his PhD in 1986. He performed postdoctoral studies with Dr. Tom Soderling, where he first became interested in the regulation of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II. He characterized the basic molecular mechanisms that allow this protein to serve as a "memory molecule." CaMKII is now understood to play a pivotal role in regulating normal excitatory synaptic transmission, learning and memory.

Dr. Colbran became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1992 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1999 and Professor in 2006. His laboratory continues to focus on the molecular roles of CaMKII in normal learning and memory in the central nervous system, as well as in neurological diseases, such as Parkinson's disease. Studies in Dr. Colbran's lab have identified proteins that interact with and localize this kinase to excitatory synapses, including physiologically important targets for regulation via phosphorylation, such as subunits of the NMDA receptor and L-type voltage gated calcium channels. Ongoing studies are directed at exploiting this mechanistic information to understand the roles of these interactions in physiological and pathological situations, with the ultimate goal of developing novel strategies to treat diseases associated with abnormal calcium signaling.

Dr. Colbran has served on the Editorial Board of The Journal of Biological Chemistry, as well as on several NIH review panels.