Brad graduated from Swarthmore College with a BA in Biology in 1991. He joined the Zoology department at the UW in 1995 initially working in the lab of Bill Moody on tunicate muscle development and began working in the Swalla lab in 1999. He is planning on defending his thesis by January 2002. Brad is currently supported by a NSF-PRIME fellowship for teaching innovative middle-school science. For his thesis work, Brad is exploring urochordate metamorphosis. He is investigating a number of differentially expressed genes many of which match identified genes involved in the vertebrate immune system. By characterizing the expression and function of these genes in urochordate metamorphosis he is beginning to gain valuable insight into the role of these genes in urochordates as well as the evolution of developmental pathways within the chordates.

Publications:

Davidson, B., Swalla, B.J. and Moody, W. (2000) "The Role of Thyroid Hormones in Urochordate Metamorphosis" Oral Presentation-Northwest Regional Developmental Biology Conference; Friday Harbor Laboratories; Friday Harbor, WA; March 9-11.

Davidson, B.J., Moody, W. and Swalla, B.J.. (2000) Urochordate Cornichon Homologue may play a role in Metamorphic Signalling. Developmental Biology, 222: 238, #96.

Davidson, B. and Swalla, B.J. (2001) Isolation of genes involved in ascidian metamorphosis: EGF signaling and metamorphic competence. Development, Genes and Evolution, 211(4): 190-194.

Davidson, B., Jacobs, M. and Swalla, B.J. (2002) The individual as a module: Metazoan evolution and coloniality. In Modularity in Development and Evolution. Gerhard Schlosser and Gunter Wagner, eds. University of Chicago Press (in press).