Nicholas Hanovice Email & Phone Number

• Worked in the laboratory of Dr. Benowitz leading two projects: (1) studying a newly-discovered interneuronal signaling network that links optic nerve injury to retinal ganglion cell degeneration, and (2) generating new.
• Maintained mouse colonies, and carried out all intraocular injections and optic nerve crush surgeries
• Lead multiple projects investigating the signaling pathways that lead to optic nerve degeneration and developing novel treatments that promote optic nerve regeneration
• Formed collaborations internally and with faculty at UCLA, University of South Carolina, and University of Pittsburgh to develop viable funding proposals
• Managed undergraduate research technicians: teaching them best practices in the analysis of experimental data and primary scientific literature
• Worked independently as lead investigator on multiple collaborative projects, and effectively communicated with collaborators to set and achieve project goals

Greater Pittsburgh Area

• Midway through my graduate career, my PhD advisor Dr. Jeffrey Gross moved the lab from Austin to Pittsburgh. I helped facilitate the move and set up the new lab space once we arrived. Once the lab was established, the.
• Generated a novel model of macular degeneration using a zebrafish transgenic enabling the widespread ablation of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE)
• Formed collaborations and gained expertise in a variety of methods to show RPE ablation results in rapid photoreceptor apoptosis, closely resembling photoreceptor degeneration in macular degeneration patients.
• Excitingly, I found that the zebrafish RPE is capable of regenerating both the RPE and retinal damage, and characterized the cellular mechanisms underlying this process.
• This work has resulted in a first-author publication and has laid the groundwork for developing novel insights into the genetic programs involved with RPE regeneration.

• The first portion of my graduate career was undertaken at the University of Texas at Austin. While there, I focused on understanding the process by which RPE cells develop melanin, a critical event in the development.
• I utilized next-generation sequencing, qPCR and molecular biology techniques to identify the causative mutation in two novel albino zebrafish mutants.
• Used zebrafish embryology, in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, and transmission electron microscopy techniques to show the gene nsfb is required for recycling vesicular fusion machinery.
• I used a variety of molecular biology techniques (e.g. Gibson Assembly, Tol2 transgenesis) to generate ten novel zebrafish transgenics and made them available to the broader zebrafish community to facilitate the study.
• These projects resulted in two first-author peer-review publications, and were presented at local and international conferences.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Cellular And Molecular Biology

Dissertation title: "Pigmentation and regeneration of the zebrafish retinal pigment epithelium." (Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey M. Gross) Selected.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Biology, Theatre