Martyn Goulding

Martyn Goulding is professor in the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory and the Frederick W. and Joanna J. Mitchell Chair at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He is a neuroscientist who studies the sensorimotor circuitry in the spinal cord that control a range of different motor behaviors from scratching to walking and precise forelimb movements. He is also interested in how these spinal circuits are altered by spinal injury or by pathologies that lead to chronic pain and itch.

The Goulding lab has established a comprehensive genetic toolkit and set of sophisticated behavioral tests that allows them to functionally dissect the circuits in the spinal cord that process sensory information and generate coordinated body movements. Over the past 15 years, Goulding has identified and characterized many of the core interneuron cell types that are required for locomotion, and has delved into the genetics and development of these neurons. 

Goulding received his PhD in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany.