Rate My Professor Dawn Kochanek

Dawn Kochanek is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Faculty Lead for the Biotechnology Programs in Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies, where she also serves as Program Lead for Biological Sciences Programs. She earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2001, with a thesis on analysis of Geobacteraceae genomic DNA in uranium-contaminated sediments. She received her M.S. in Biology from New York University in 2005, focusing her master’s thesis on mapping quantitative trait loci in the cavefish Astyanax mexicanus. Kochanek obtained an M.Phil. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2007 and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 2010, with a dissertation titled “Down Regulation of Neuronatin by miR-151 Blocks Inhibition of Axonal Growth by Myelin Inhibitors.” Her postdoctoral training included an associateship at Yale University’s Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (2010-2012) and a fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Center for Neurological Disorders, Department of Neurology (2012-), concentrating on RNA regulation in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

Prior to Northeastern, Kochanek was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunotherapeutics and Biotechnology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Abilene. She held adjunct faculty positions in Biological Sciences at Cisco College (2013-), Hunter College (2005-2006), and University of Massachusetts Amherst (2001), and earlier roles as research technician at New York University (2003-2005) and research assistant at UMass (1999-2001). Her research specializations include developmental and molecular neurobiology, central nervous system axonal regeneration, RNA regulation, genetics, and microbiology. Key publications are “Genetic analysis of cavefish reveals molecular convergence in the evolution of albinism” (Nature Genetics, 2006, Protas et al.); “CPEB1 Regulates the Expression of MTDH/AEG-1 and Glioblastoma Cell Migration” (Molecular Cancer Research, 2013); “Mir-26b, Upregulated in Alzheimer’s Disease, Activates cell cycle re-entry, TAU phosphorylation and Apoptosis in Post-mitotic Neurons” (Journal of Neuroscience, 2013, Absalon et al.); and “Testing the Cavefish Model: An Organism-Focused Theory of Biological Design” (2025). Awards include the NINDS/NICHD Scholarship (2009), Science Teaching Fellowship, Tuition Fellowship, and Travel Grant from CUNY Graduate Center (2005-2010). She has presented at Society for Neuroscience Annual Meetings (2009-2012) and Keystone Symposia.