David Gazzo

Biography

My drive to pursue a career in biomedical research, specifically in areas of disease development, stems from a family history that has suffered from genetic illnesses. Witnessing my grandparents’ cognitive capabilities decline due to Alzheimer’s and not being able to play cards with them sparked a passion in me to better understand the diseases that had afflicted them. As they always valued the pursuit of knowledge and fostered an environment within my family to achieve higher education, I was encouraged to follow my love for biology and genetics by pursuing a degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering. This ultimately led me to work in Dr. Zartman’s lab, which specializes in the Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) model organism, an outstanding tool for recapitulating human genetic diseases. With this model, not only can I study the complexity of biology, but I can also harness the genetic tools that have been created for it and apply them to the study of diseases like the ones afflicting my family. As a graduate student, I have already designed new platforms to study neurodegeneration in fly models for high-throughput screenings of potential therapeutics. Combining this platform and other techniques, I hope to broaden our understanding of neurodegenerative disease pathology and progression, contributing to the development of novel treatments to restore the dysregulated signaling pathways of such illnesses. I ultimately hope to find ways to preserve the cognitive abilities of our older generations so that younger individuals can maximize the time that they get to spend with them.