Will Talbot

Professor of developmental biology
Stanford University

Will Talbot is professor of developmental biology at Stanford University. His research focuses on the development and function of glial cells in the vertebrate nervous system. He completed his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1993 at Stanford University. As a graduate student with David Hogness at Stanford, Talbot investigated the genetic control of metamorphosis in Drosophila. As a postdoctoral fellow working with Charles Kimmel and John Postlethwait at the University of Oregon, he conducted molecular studies of genes that regulate early development in the zebrafish. Talbot became assistant professor at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at New York University Medical Center in 1996, and in 1999, he joined the faculty at Stanford. He has received a Pew Scholars Award, a Rita Allen Foundation Scholars Award, and he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

 

Explore more from The Transmitter

Brain organoid.

What is the future of organoid and assembloid regulation?

Four experts weigh in on how to establish ethical guardrails for research on the 3D neuron clusters as these models become ever more complex.

By Claudia López Lloreda
10 December 2025 | 7 min read
Research image of variants of the ATPase subunit PSMC5/RPT6.

Insights on suicidality and autism; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 8 December.

By Jill Adams
9 December 2025 | 2 min read
A stack of papers topped by many paper shreddings against a red background.

Exclusive: Springer Nature retracts, removes nearly 40 publications that trained neural networks on ‘bonkers’ dataset

The dataset contains images of children’s faces downloaded from websites about autism, which sparked concerns at Springer Nature about consent and reliability.

By Calli McMurray
8 December 2025 | 5 min read

privacy consent banner

Privacy Preference

We use cookies to provide you with the best online experience. By clicking “Accept All,” you help us understand how our site is used and enhance its performance. You can change your choice at any time. To learn more, please visit our Privacy Policy.