Kevin Staley is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation at Harvard Medical School and the chief of the section of child neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He trained in physics, medicine, pediatric neurology and cellular electrophysiology.

The lab has a longstanding interest in signaling by the neurotransmitter GABA.  GABA signals are carried by anion currents that are uniquely reversible.  We study how and why these signals reverse, how these reversals may engender seizures, and how the direction of GABA currents can be manipulated to prevent seizures.  These studies form the basis for a recently published trial of the chloride transport inhibitor bumetanide for neonatal seizures.  We have recently extended these efforts to studies of acute ion and fluid shifts that underlie brain swelling, intraventricular hemorrhage, and seizures after injury.  To link GABA changes to seizures, we also study the mechanisms by which epileptic activity is initiated and spread.  Computational models are being tested using new imaging and optical stimulation methods.