Dr. Fleming earned his undergraduate (AB) degree in Biology at College of the Holy Cross.  He went on to Brandeis University where he studied Development and Genetics in the development of flight muscles in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and received his Ph.D. in 1987. From 1987 through 1991 he engaged in post doctoral research at Yale University studying cell to cell communication during fruit fly development. In 1992, he was appointed Assistant Professor in Biology at the University of Rochester where he continued to examine cell to cell communication and Notch signaling. He was promoted to Associate professor in 1997.  In an effort to interact more directly with undergraduates and to take advantage of smaller class sizes, Dr. Fleming moved to Trinity College in 2001 as an Associate professor in biology. He was granted tenure in 2004 and promoted to full professor in 2012.  He continues his studies on mechanisms that regulate the Notch signaling pathway using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as his research organism.

• Fleming, Robert J. “Notch Signaling,” AccessScience (McGraw-Hill Education, 2014).
• Fleming, Robert J., Hori, Kazuya, Sen, Anindya, Filloramo, Gina V., Langer, Jillian M., Obar, Robert A., Artavanis-Tsakonas, Spyros and   Maharaj-Best, Ayiti C. "An extracellular region of Serrate is essential for ligand-induced cis-inhibition of Notch signaling." Development 140 (2013): 2039-2049.
• Ratan, R., Mason, D.A., Sinnot, B., Goldfarb, D.S.  and Fleming, R. J. "Drosophila importin a1 performs paralog-specific functions essential for gametogenesis." Genetics 178 (2008): 839-850.
• Trang, T.T., Tannous, V., Gu, Y., Mosher, J. and Fleming, R. J.  "Ser+r83k is a second site mutation of SerD affecting the N-terminus of Serrate." Genesis 39 (2004): 42-51.
• Yan, S-J., Gu, Y., Li, W.X., and Fleming, R.J.  "Multiple signaling pathways and a selector protein sequentially regulate Drosophila wing development." Development 131 (2004): 285-298.
• Mason, D. A., Máthé, E., Fleming, R. J. and Goldfarb, D. S. "The Drosophila melanogaster importin a3 locus encodes an essential gene required for the development of both larval and adult tissues." Genetics 165 (2003): 1943-1958.
• Mason, D. A., Fleming, R. J. and Goldfarb, D. S.  "Drosophila melanogaster Importin a1 and a3 can replace importin a2 during spermatogenesis but not oogenesis." Genetics 161 (2002): 157-170.
• Fleming, R. J. "Structural conservation of Notch receptors and ligands." Semin Cell Dev Biol. 9 (1998): 599-607.

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