David R Hyde, PhD

Dr. David Russell Hyde is a Professor of Biology and the Rev. Howard J. Kenna, C.S.C Memorial Director of the Center for Zebrafish Research at the University of Notre Dame. He completed his doctoral studies at the Pennsylvania State University and was a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology with Dr. Seymour Benzer. His laboratory develops neurodegenerative models in zebrafish to mimic human diseases and then studies how the fish rapidly and spontaneously regenerate neurons from an endogenous population of adult stem cells. While humans possess the same adult stem cell population as do the zebrafish, we lack this regenerative ability. Hyde's research team is focusing on how this neuronal regeneration process works in fish so they may develop therapies to induce neuronal regeneration therapies to correct human diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and Alzheimer's disease. In addition to his BrightFocus award, Hyde is funded by the National Eye Institute of NIH.