Amanda Zacharias, PhD

Amanda graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in biomedical engineering. Her first exposure to developmental biology was spending a summer working with Dr. Nadean Brown (now at UC Davis), who got Amanda excited about the ability of transcription factors to control cell fates, which still inspires her work today.

She went to graduate school at the University of Michigan where she studied the roles of the transcription factor Pitx2 in mammalian eye development with Dr. Phil Gage. 

She went on to pursue postdoctoral studies with Dr. John Isaac Murray at the University of Pennsylvania to learn the powerful genetic model system, C. elegans, and the innovative imaging approach he developed to study gene expression. Since joining Cincinnati Children’s, her lab has investigated Wnt signaling and its role in cell movements and now the role of vitamins and metabolism in development.

When not in the lab, Amanda enjoys spending time with her family - including two dogs, and propagating succulent plants.

Learn more about Amanda Zacharias, PhD.

Tushar Ganjawala

Research Fellow

Tushar Ganajawala, PhD, came to the US from India in 2008 and earned a master's degree in biology from The University of Michigan-Flint in 2010, and a PhD in anatomy and cell biology from Wayne State University in 2019. In his PhD research, he optimized Channelrhodopsin variants to restore functional vision in a mouse model, with the goal of someday using this reagent for optogenetic vision restoration in humans with photoreceptor degeneration diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration.

He joined the Amanda Zacharias lab in 2020 to study transcriptional factor mediated gene regulation during development using the C. elegans model system. Currently, his research focuses on the role of vitamin B12 in impacting developmental morphogenesis and cell fate determination. Outside the lab, he is passionate about cooking and cricket (sport).