Charles Wilson, Ph.D.

The Ewing Halsell Distinguished Chair in Biology

Professor, Biology

Charles Wilson is the Ewing Halsell Distinguished Chair in Biology at UTSA and director of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute. Wilson’s lab studies the circuitry and neurons of the basal ganglia, with the goal of understanding the computational function of these structures at the cellular level, and their dysfunction in diseases, especially Parkinson’s Disease. Their experiments are focused on the ionic mechanisms that endow each cell type with its characteristic responses to synaptic input, the patterns of connectivity that deliver specific inputs to each cell, and the dynamics that arise from the combination of these. 

His research lab employs microscopy and intracellular recording (at the same time), and mathematical modeling to understand the basic mechanisms responsible for the electrical activity of neurons. Some of this activity is autonomous; this activity arises from the constellation of ion channels expressed on the cell membrane, and the interactions among channels via voltage, calcium, and other intracellular messengers. Wilson’s lab studies the contribution of specific ion channels using intracellular recording and ion imaging, to determine the ionic mechanism of autonomous activity in each neuron type in the basal ganglia. Mathematical models of the interacting set of ion channels are used to build an understanding of the result of the interaction. 

Wilson earned his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Before coming to UTSA, he taught at Michigan State University School of Medicine, and  the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. In 2000, he joined the UTSA faculty as the Roland K and Jane W. Blumberg Professor of Neurobiology, and became Ewing Halsell Chair of Biology in 2011.