William Moody, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Director, Undergraduate Neurobiology

profbill@u.washington.edu

Major Education:
BS, Molecular Biology, Yale University.
Ph.D., Neurobiology, Stanford University

Research Interests:
Our laboratory studies the role of electrical activity in early brain development. It has been known for many years that electrical activity driven by early sensory input plays a critical role in shaping the connections of the nervous system. More recently, however, it has become clear that many neurons generate spontaneous electrical activity at even earlier stages of development. This activity takes the form of bursts of action potentials that occur synchronously in large populations of neurons. Although it is clear that this activity does not result from sensory input, neither the mechanisms generating it nor its role in development are understood in most regions of the nervous system. We use a combination of single-cell electrical recording, multi-cell optical imaging of intracellular calcium concentration, and long-term culture of living brain slices to study these questions.