Justin Varholick

Assistant Professor of Biology
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
Kennesaw State University

Education

Post-doc Fellowship '19-'25 Regenerative Biology, University of Florida
Ph.D. '15-'18 Biomedical Science, University of Bern, Switzerland
M.A. '12-'14 Biopsychology, UNC Greensboro, Wake Forest University 
B.A. '08-'12 Psychology and Biology, UNC Greensboro

About Me

Behaviors are active agents in evolution and development, but what about healing, regeneration, and recovery? Indeed, regeneration is widely regarded as "a window into development," recapitulating embryonic development to restore damaged tissue. Thus, I spend most of my time (1) investigating the behaviors and brains of highly regenerative animals (i.e., nature's super healers) to (2) identify the role of behavior in regeneration and to (3) apply what we learn to teach the human body to regenerate and recover rather than scar and atrophy. I look at healing as a whole system: not just cells and genes, but how they connect and interact with the brain, behavior, and environment. 

I started research as an undergrad, curious about how babies develop handedness (i.e., whether they are right-, left-, or no-preference handed), which grew into my master's research on how rats can be used as a model to understand how birth affects brain development (i.e., each contraction asphyxiates the fetus, leading to neuronal cell death). That curiosity developed my passion for combining animal behavior with biomedical research, where I determined that home-cage fighting behaviors in mice contribute to individual differences in common behavioral assays in neuroscience. After this, I realized that behavior is often overlooked but can be a powerful tool for improving our understanding of many branches of biomedical science (e.g., cancer, immunity, healing and recovery, etc.). 

Now, I lead The Varholick Lab at Kennesaw State University. Our team explores how behavior, the environment, cells, and genes work together to drive healing, regeneration, and recovery. We're always looking for curious minds and new ideas, so if you're interested in tissue regeneration and behavior, let's connect!

Research Interests

Tissue repair, Tissue regeneration, Neurobiology, Neuroplasticity, Behavioral recovery, Phenotypic variability, Social dominance behavior,  Research design, Histology, Bioinformatics...