We combine comparative biology, neuroscience, genomics, and behavior to uncover mechanisms that restore sensation, movement, and organ function after injury.
Our mission is to understand how regenerative animals restore functional tissues and to translate those mechanisms into therapies that improve recovery after injury and disease.
Why do some vertebrates regenerate while mammals scar? Answering it requires a functional standard: tissue that regrows must also feel, move, and work. That standard organizes the entire lab.
Our strategy is to study animals that already succeed. Spiny mice (Acomys) and salamanders rebuild working tissue where laboratory mice and humans lay down scar. Comparing what they do against what we cannot is how the mechanism becomes visible — and how it becomes something a patient could one day receive.
Functional Regeneration
Regrowing tissue is not the same as restoring function. Skin can close, follicles can return, and the animal can still feel nothing. We hold regeneration to a functional standard: nerves must regrow into the right targets, those targets must reconnect with the brain, and the behavior that depends on that circuit must actually return. Spiny mice and salamanders let us watch all three happen at once, and let us find out what goes wrong when they come apart.
Molecular Programs of Regeneration
Functional recovery is the outcome; gene and cell programs are the cause. Using genomics, bioinformatics, and AI-assisted analysis, we ask which transcriptional programs separate regeneration from scarring — and whether the same programs recur across skin, ear, and nerve, and across spiny mice, salamanders, and laboratory mice. Mechanisms that are conserved across tissues and species are the ones most likely to transfer to human medicine.
Manuscripts in preparation.
February 2026
Rachel (Jaehyeon) Lee, a high school student from Walton High School in Marietta, GA, who worked in our lab over winter break, has been selected to present her research on planarian regeneration at Regeneron ISEF 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. Congratulations, Rachel!
January 2026
The lab has open positions for research projects on tissue regeneration, behavioral neuroscience, and physiology in highly regenerative rodents, salamanders, and planarians. Students will have opportunities to incorporate laboratory, bioinformatic, and possibly field methods and work collaboratively with other lab members. Learn More
December 2025
The Varholick Lab was awarded two internal grants. A $19k grant for "Unravelling synaptic resilience: neurobiological mechanisms of enhanced learning and memory in Acomys cahirinus." In collaboration with Dr. Vishnu Suppiramanian and Dr. Erica Holliday. The other is a $3.5k award to study "Exploring neuroanatomy and sensory innervation in polymorphic two-lined salamanders" with Dr. Todd Pierson and students Kellyn Gilligan and Ito Osayi.
We're always open to collaborations, inquiries, and new talent. Whether you're an undergraduate looking for your first research experience or a collaborator with a new perspective, we'd love to hear from you.
Science Building, Room 360
Kennesaw State University
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology
Kennesaw, Georgia
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