Ryan Thummel

I received my Ph.D. in Developmental Genetics in 2004 under the training of Alan Godwin, Ph.D. at the University of Kansas Medical Center. As a post-doc in David Hyde’s lab at the University of Notre Dame, I developed an in vivo electroporation technique to use morpholinos for targeted knockdown of genes of interest during retinal regeneration in adult zebrafish. This technique was used to definitively showed that Müller glia are the source of retinal progenitors during retinal regeneration in the adult zebrafish. I joined the faculty of Wayne State University School of Medicine in 2009. My lab continues to use zebrafish as a model to study retinal and CNS development, retinal regeneration in adults, and cancer biology. We have trainees at every level in the lab and have two zebrafish facilities to support our research programs. I am also part of team of faculty responsible for teaching the first year curriculum to our medical students. Please visit our lab website to learn more about our work. https://thummellab.weebly.com/