Dr. Matt Judson is a senior scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Ben Philpot in the Neuroscience Center and Department of Cell Biology & Physiology at the University of North Carolina. He earned his Ph.D. in cellular and molecular neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Pat Levitt at Vanderbilt University where he studied the neurodevelopmental expression and functional impact of the MET receptor tyrosine kinase, a pleiotropic protein encoded by a high-confidence autism risk gene.

Dr. Judson conducted his postdoctoral work in the Philpot laboratory, which centered on electrophysiological investigations of neuron type-specific deletions of the Ube3a gene and led to the discovery that loss of UBE3A function in GABAergic interneurons is largely responsible for the seizure phenotypes and disrupted EEG rhythms that define Angelman syndrome. As a research assistant professor, Dr. Judson now focusses on developing therapeutic strategies to normalize UBE3A expression in UBE3A-linked disorders.

He is the co-inventor of a published dual-isoform approach for restoring functional neuronal UBE3A expression in Angelman syndrome. More recently, he has worked with Kicho Inc. to preclinically test the safety and efficacy of a treatment for Dup15q syndrome based on ASO-mediated knockdown UBE3A overexpression. A major future goal of Dr. Judson’s work is to improve the brain-wide delivery of ASO and viral vector-based therapies.