About

Darrell Wilson is a film artist and sculptor whose work includes short films, media installations, and sculptural works. His works have been exhibited at The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, The Collective for the Living Cinema, The Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, The Cinematheque in Montreal, Gallerie Maximilien Guillot in Paris, and various independent film festivals and galleries throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. He has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Canada Council on the Arts, and the Jerome Foundation for Experimental Film. Wilson has worked as a production designer and artistic consultant for numerous independent film and video productions. He previously taught at Parsons School of Design and Rutgers University Fine Arts Department. His first animated feature film, 'Gilgamesh,' is a contemporary interpretation of the Epic of Gilgamesh. His second feature work, 'The Apotheosis of Antinous,' a dance film about the love story of Emperor Hadrian and Antinous, is in pre-production and will be filmed in the coming year. Currently, he is producing his first play titled '1960 to 1990 or Thereabouts,' an experimental performance about the HIV crisis in New York City. Wilson's courses include Media Mavericks, Frame and Sequence, and First Person Narrative, and he serves as Area Head for Intermediate and Advanced Experimental Film Production.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Neuroscience
• Communication
• Social psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Psychology
• Biology

Selected publications

• Healthy Islands at 30: revitalising an ecological framework for planetary health

  The Lancet Planetary Health · 2025-11-21

  articleOpen access

  Healthy Islands at 30: revitalising an ecological framework for planetary health

  PublisherDOI

• In Situ Analog In-Memory Computing Under Ionizing Radiation Exposure

  IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science · 2025-02-03 · 2 citations

  article

  We experimentally performed in situ analog in-memory computing (IMC) under ionizing radiation, using a 40-nm silicon-oxide–nitride-oxide–silicon (SONOS) charge-trap memory array with peripheral circuits that support analog matrix-vector multiplication (MVM) operations. The SONOS array used analog MVMs to process the last layer of a convolutional neural network (CNN) for TinyImageNet image classification while being irradiated by gamma rays from a Co-60 source. We experimentally characterized how the following quantities were gradually degraded by increasing the total ionizing dose (TID), up to 3.2 Mrad(Si): neural network weights that were mapped to SONOS states, dot products that were computed by analog MVMs, and the resulting image classification accuracy of the neural network. Using multiscale modeling, we confirmed that the experimentally observed accuracy loss originates almost entirely from the state-dependent current shifts induced by ionizing radiation in the SONOS memory cells. Our experimentally validated model of radiation effects in SONOS analog computing can be used to guide the design of reliable space-grade analog IMC accelerators.

  PublisherDOI

• Understanding implementation, adoption, and acceptability of the WHO package of essential noncommunicable (PEN) disease interventions in FIJI: Evidence for scale-up

  PLOS Global Public Health · 2025-04-21

  articleOpen access

  The Package of Essential Noncommunicable (PEN) disease interventions in response to the high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes was implemented in Fiji commencing in 2012. This study aimed to understand implementation outcomes, and its contextual influences. Semi-structured interviews with health workers and patients across Fiji was conducted. Thematic analysis was mapped to the health system building blocks to understand PEN service delivery. The PEN program was well received by health workers formally trained. The frequency of use of PEN guidelines was influenced at the individual level by motivation, capability and capacity as well as external factors outside of the health workers' control. The key challenges to routine use were lack of essential medicines and equipment for CVD risk screening and management, shortage of health workers, high turnover of staff, limited formal training, and no designated focal person. However, at the country level, the PEN program improved the quality of care by providing patients with regular follow-up visits depending on their CVD risk levels. The patients found care to be comprehensive when they were also seen by dieticians and physiotherapists. In most instances, the barrier to access to care were cost and distance of travel and non-availability of essential medicines. To improve use of PEN program requires strengthening health system components: 1) need for efficient supply chain system for medicines and equipment, 2) improving healthcare workforce retention, 3) establishing accountability mechanisms embedded within the health centres, 4) health information system to track patient level data and 5) multi-level governance structures across the health system.

  PublisherDOI

• Methionine Aminopeptidase 2 (MetAP2) Inhibitor BL6 Attenuates Inflammation in Cultured Microglia and in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

  Molecules · 2025-01-31 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Methionine aminopeptidase 2 (MetAP2) plays an important role in the regulation of protein synthesis and post-translational processing. Preclinical/clinical applications of MetAP2 inhibitors for the treatment of various diseases have been explored because of their antiangiogenic, anticancer, antiobesity, antidiabetic, and immunosuppressive properties. However, the effects of MetAP2 inhibitors on CNS diseases are rarely examined despite the abundant presence of MetAP2 in the brain. Previously, we synthesized a novel boron-containing MetAP2 inhibitor, BL6, and found that it suppressed angiogenesis and adipogenesis yet improved glucose uptake. Here, we studied the anti-inflammatory effects of BL6 in SIM-A9 microglia and in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease generated by the intracerebroventricular (icv) injection of streptozotocin (STZ). We found that BL6 reduced proinflammatory molecules, such as nitric oxide, iNOS, IL-1β, and IL-6, together with phospho-Akt and phospho-NF-κB p65, which were elevated in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated microglial SIM-A9 cells. However, the LPS-induced reduction in Arg-1 and CD206 was attenuated by BL6, suggesting that BL6 promotes microglial M1 to M2 polarization. BL6 also decreased glial activation along with a reduction in phospho-tau and an elevation in synaptophysin in the icv-STZ mouse model. Thus, our experiments demonstrate an anti-neuroinflammatory action of BL6, suggesting possible clinical applications of MetAP2 inhibitors for brain disorders in which neuroinflammation is involved.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Developmental alcohol exposure is exhausting: Sleep and the enduring consequences of alcohol exposure during development

  Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · 2024-02-01 · 11 citations

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Early-life prefrontal cortex inhibition and early-life stress lead to long-lasting behavioral, transcriptional, and physiological impairments

  Molecular Psychiatry · 2024-03-14 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Devaluation of response-produced safety signals reveals circuits for goal-directed versus habitual avoidance in dorsal striatum

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-02-07 · 3 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Active avoidance responses (ARs) are instrumental behaviors that prevent harm. Adaptive ARs may contribute to active coping, whereas maladaptive avoidance habits are implicated in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The AR learning mechanism has remained elusive, as successful avoidance trials produce no obvious reinforcer. We used a novel outcome-devaluation procedure in rats to show that ARs are positively reinforced by response-produced feedback (FB) cues that develop into safety signals during training. Males were sensitive to FB-devaluation after moderate training, but not overtraining, consistent with a transition from goal-directed to habitual avoidance. Using chemogenetics and FB-devaluation, we also show that goal-directed vs. habitual ARs depend on dorsomedial vs. dorsolateral striatum, suggesting a significant overlap between the mechanisms of avoidance and rewarded instrumental behavior. Females were insensitive to FB-devaluation due to a remarkable context-dependence of counterconditioning. However, degrading the AR-FB contingency suggests that both sexes rely on safety signals to perform goal-directed ARs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Recurrent hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and subsequent maternal cardiovascular outcomes

  Annals of Epidemiology · 2024-09-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Transforming place-based management within watersheds in Fiji: The watershed interventions for systems health project

  PLOS Water · 2024-07-01 · 8 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Watersheds offer opportunities for place-based interventions to transform systems health via preventative versus reactive approaches to management that achieve multiple co-benefits for public and environmental health. The Watershed Interventions for Systems Health in Fiji (WISH Fiji) project embraced participatory knowledge co-production and action-oriented research to identify risks to public and ecosystem health, prioritize interventions to address risks, and monitor responses of the system to interventions. We used screening filters and local knowledge to collaboratively identify five watersheds for action with high prior incidence of water-related diseases (Fiji’s “three plagues” of leptospirosis, typhoid and dengue) and high risk to downstream environmental health. We reviewed literature to identify disease risk factors, evaluated overlaps with risks for downstream environmental impact, and designed 13 instruments to collect information about baseline risk. Following consultations to obtain free, prior and informed consent, we enrolled 311 households across 29 communities. We synthesized data to identify key risks at the household, community, and landscape level, which were communicated to community water and resource management committees and government leaders as part of developing water and sanitation safety plans for each community. Local committees identified 339 priority risk reduction actions across nine main categories: animal management; drainage; health systems surveillance; hygiene; integrated planning; land use management; sanitation systems; waste management; and water systems. As of October 2022, 154 interventions were implemented in the five watersheds across different risk categories and scales. While we can track changes to factors that reduce risk of water-related disease and improve environmental health, direct evaluation of impacts to public health is limited due to poor geolocation of case records. The WISH Fiji project is a model of cross-sectoral coordination that efficiently progresses multiple Sustainable Development Goals, but scaling requires sustained investment in interventions to realize full benefits, particularly for nature-based solutions that exhibit lagged responses.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Anti-inflammatory Action of BT75, a Novel RARα Agonist, in Cultured Microglia and in an Experimental Mouse Model of Alzheimer’s Disease

  Neurochemical Research · 2023-02-13 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R21DC007112

  NIH · $390k · 2008

• Modulation of Olfactory Sensory Function by Amyloid-beta

  NIH · $1.6M · 2011–2017

• Cortical Processing

  NIH · $4.3M · 1998–2020

• NIH Grant R01DC008982

  NIH · $2.0M · 2014

• Neuronal Protective Apolipoprotein E2-mediated endocytic and exocytic pathways

  NIH · $2.4M · 2017–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Regina M. Sullivan

  Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research

  151 shared

• Mariko Saito

  Miyagi Prefectural Hospital Organization

  95 shared

• Dylan C. Barnes

  University of Oklahoma

  66 shared

• Daniel W. Wesson

  Florida College

  61 shared

• John F. Smiley

  58 shared

• Efrat Levy

  Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research

  54 shared

• Johan N. Lundström

  Karolinska Institutet

  53 shared

• Ralph A. Nixon

  New York University

  43 shared

Labs

• The Development & Alumni Relations TeamPI

Education

• B.A., Film & Television

  New York University

  1990

• M.A., Film & Television

  New York University

  1992

• Ph.D., Film & Television

  New York University

  1996

Awards & honors

• Grants from the New York State Council on the Arts
• Grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts
• Grants from The Canada Council on the Arts
• Jerome Foundation for Experimental Film