Rate My Professor Philip Williams

Philip Williams, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the same institution in 2009, advised by Prof. Rachel Wong, following a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies: Neuroscience from the University of Florida in 2000. His postdoctoral training included a fellowship at the Technical University of Munich from 2010 to 2014 under Prof. Thomas Misgeld and an Instructor/Postdoctoral Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School from 2014 to 2018 with Prof. Zhigang He. Williams directs the Williams Lab, investigating mechanisms of neuronal preservation and axon regeneration in the context of central nervous system injury and neurodegenerative disease.

Utilizing the mouse retina as a primary model, the lab studies responses of retinal ganglion cells—comprising over 45 subtypes with varying survival and regenerative capacities—and their synaptic partners to injury and disease. Research employs in vivo multiphoton microscopy, next-generation transcriptomics, viral gene delivery, pharmacological manipulations, and growth factors to identify endogenous coping strategies and test therapeutic interventions. Key areas include calcium homeostasis in retinal ganglion cell degeneration, metabolic biosensors for neurodegeneration, subtype-specific survival following optic nerve injury, and neuronal adaptations supporting vision amid disease. Select publications are "Role of calcium homeostasis in retinal ganglion cell degeneration" (2026), "Genetically encoded biosensors of metabolic function for the study of neurodegeneration: a review and perspective" (2025), "Reduction of prolonged excitatory neuron swelling after spinal cord injury improves locomotor recovery in mice" (2024), "Diversity in homeostatic calcium set points predicts retinal ganglion cell survival following optic nerve injury in vivo" (2023), and "Cell-type-specific binocular vision guides predation in mice" (2021). His work has resulted in 37 research outputs documented in university profiles.