Academic Education:

B.S., Chemical Engineering, Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA
Ph.D., Physiology and Biophysics, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA


Appointments:

US Army Officer, 937th Engineer Group, Fort Riley KS (1979-1983)

Research Assistant, Kansas State University, Manhattan KS (1981-1983)

Graduate Student, Harvard Medical School, Boston (1983-1989)

Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (1989-1990)

Visiting Lecturer, University of Colorado, Boulder (1990-1991)

Research Associate, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stony Brook NY (1992-1995)

Research Assistant Professor, SUNY-Stony Brook, Long Island NY (1996-1997)

Assistant Professor, Northeastern University, Boston (1997- 2003)

Associate Professor, Northeastern University, Boston (2003-Present)


Other Professional Activities :

Inventor of the Digital Maze Game, an emerging educational technology.

Research Interests:

I am intrigued by the processing of information by neuronal populations. In particular, I would like to understand how circuit-level neural architectures enable sensorimotor transformations and intelligent animal behaviors. My research lab uses confocal microscopy and high-speed behavioral imaging to establish the neural basis of the surprisingly diverse repertoire of locomotor behaviors exhibited by larval zebrafish (many of which were discovered here at NU). The larval zebrafish is, in fact, a transparent predator that gives neurobiologists unparalleled access to the workings of an extremely complex and elegant set of neural circuits. This is a rapidly expanding research field based upon in vivo calcium imaging (O’Malley et al. 1996; O’Malley, 2008) and more recently developed optical-control technologies.

I am also interested in the evolution of artificial and biological intelligence, and the potentially existential issues embodied therein. Language, Memory, Consciousness and Neocortical Architectures are entangled in the generation of human intelligence. This theoretical branch of my research seeks to understand how these phenomena relate to synaptic-level brain circuits and bioneural computation. Our current research on Conscious Record Memory indicates the existence of an extremely powerful and generally overlooked memory system (Gioioso and O’Malley, 2009) that may constitute a foundation upon which higher cognitive functions operate.

Teaching Activities:

I taught Microbiology and Cell Biology at the University of Colorado and a Calcium Stores Seminar at SUNY Stony Brook before joining the Northeastern University Department of Biology. At NU, My Biological Imaging course illustrates the principal imaging tools used in biomedical research; we present and critique key applications from the current research literature. I also teach Neurobiology, which emphasizes the operations of neural circuits from a molecular and biophysical perspective. At times I offer graduate-level Advanced Topics seminars relating to my research interests as well as a Research Problem Solving seminar. Recent seminars have focused on Locomotor Control Systems, The Evolution of Artificial and Biological Intelligence and Computational Neuroscience. I previously taught Anatomy and Physiology, with an emphasis or organ-systems physiology.

Selected Publications:

Sankrithi N and O’Malley DM (2010) Activation of a multisensory, multifunctional nucleus in the zebrafish midbrain during diverse locomotor behaviors. Neuroscience, 166:970-993.

Kamali M, Day LJ, Brooks D, Zhou X, O’Malley DM (2009) Automated identification of neurons in 3D confocal datasets from zebrafish brainstem. Journal of Microscopy 233:114-131.

O’Malley DM (2008) Imaging in Depth: Controversies and Opportunities. Methods in Cell Biology 89:95-128.

Knudsen DP, Arsenault JT, Hill SA, O’Malley DM and José JV (2006) Locomotive network modeling based on identified neurons in zebrafish. Neurocomputing 69:1169-1174.

McElligott MB and O’Malley DM (2005) Prey tracking by larval zebrafish: axial kinematics and visual control. Brain Behavior & Evolution. 66:177-196.

Gahtan E and O’Malley DM (2003) Visually-guided injection of identified reticulospinal neurons in zebrafish: a survey of spinal arborization patterns. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 459:186-200.

Gahtan E, Sankrithi N, Campos JB and O’Malley DM (2002) Evidence for a widespread brainstem escape network in larval zebrafish. Journal of Neurophysiology, 87:608-614.

Budick SA and O’Malley DM (2000) Locomotor repertoire of the larval zebrafish: swimming, turning and prey capture. Journal of Experimental Biology, 203:2565-2579.

O'Malley DM, Kao Y-H and Fetcho JR (1996) Imaging the functional organization of zebrafish hindbrain segments. Neuron, 17:1145-1155.

Fetcho JR and O'Malley DM (1995) Visualization of active neural circuitry in the spinal cord of intact zebrafish. Journal of Neurophysiology, 73:399-406.

O’Malley DM (1994) Calcium permeability of the neuronal nuclear envelope: evaluation using confocal volumes and intracellular perfusion. Journal of Neuroscience, 14:5741-5758.

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