Principal Investigator

Melissa M. McGovern, PhD

Assistant Professor

Departments of Otolaryngology and Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh

Melissa received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Illinois College in 2013 and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Neuroscience from Southern Illinois University in 2017. While in graduate school, she investigated the ability of the neonatal cochlea to naturally regenerate lost cells in the lab of Dr. Brandon Cox. Following graduation, Melissa completed her postdoctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine in the lab of Dr. Andy Groves, where she studied the ability of the mature cochlea to be reprogrammed by the activation of transcription factors. Melissa’s joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in May 2023, where she investigates the genetic barriers in supporting cells that prevent their conversion into hair cells.

McGovern Lab Members

Joseph Harriger

Lab Manager

Joseph has a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences with a sub focus in organic chemistry that was awarded in 2022 from the University of Pittsburgh. During his undergraduate education, Joseph's research was focused on homeopathic elimination of bacteria without the use of antibiotics.  Post graduation, his focus shifted to Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, where his research was focused on HIV therapeutics and vaccine development strategy in the lab or Dr. Bernard [Beej] JC Macatangay at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. During this time, he developed an assay for the analysis of Natural Killer [NK] cells, in-vitro, under the presence of proprietary Anti-NKG2A Monoclonal Antibodies-examining the killing efficiency of NK Cells. Joseph's passion for science is now being continued through the McGovern Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where there is a strong focus on molecular and genetic techniques to evaluate the barrier that exists between supporting cells and efforts to convert them into hair cells of the inner ear.

Alissa Buck

Research Technician

Alissa received her BS in Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh in 2022.  While in undergrad, she took courses in neuroscience, which sparked her interest in studying the brain. These classes influenced her to do undergraduate research in a lab that focused on cognitive and neuronal mechanisms of anxiety. Upon graduation, she continued with clinical research in a lab that researched geriatrics and anxiety. After gaining some experience in clinical research, she wanted to give basic science a try and found herself working in a microbiology lab. She realized there that microbiology is not her cup of tea and wanted to get back into research, which is how she found herself working for the McGovern Lab. Eventually, she plans to go to graduate school to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience, where she can continue research. Outside of the lab, some of her interests are spending time with her cat, cooking, hiking, and crocheting.

Selected Publications

McGovern, M.M, Niu, Y., Hosamani, I., Nguyen, K., Zong, C., Groves, A.K. Expression of Atoh1, Gfi1, and Pou4f3 in the mature cochlea reprograms non-sensory cells into hair cells. (2024) Proc Natl Acad Sci 121 (5) e2304680121

McGovern, M.M, Hartman, B., Thawani, A., Maunsell, H.R., Zhang, H., Heller, S., Stone, J., Groves, A.K. (2023) Fbxo2CreERT2: A new model for targeting cells in the neonatal and mature inner ear. Hearing Research 428:108686

Iyer, A., Hosamani, I., Nguyen, J.D., Cai, T., Singh, S., McGovern, M.M., Beyer, L.A., Zhang, H., Jen, H.-I, Yousaf, R., Birol, O., Sun, J., Ray, R.S., Raphael, Y., Segil, N., Groves, A.K. (2022). Cellular reprogramming with ATOH1, GFI1, and POU4F3 implicate epigenetic changes and cell-cell signaling as obstacles to hair cell regeneration in mature mammals. eLife, 11:e79712. DOI: https:// doi. org/ 10. 7554/ eLife. 79712

Teng-Wei Huang, Amrita Iyer, Jeanne Manalo, Junsung Woo, Navish Bosquez Huerta, Melissa McGovern, Heinrich Schrewe, Fred Pereira, Andrew K Groves, Kevin Ohlemiller, and Benjamin Deneen. (2021) Glial-Specific Deletion of Med12 Results in Rapid Hearing Loss via Degradation of the Stria Vascularis. J. Neurosci 41(34) 7171-7181

Gnedeva, L., Wang, X., McGovern, M.M., Tao, L., Trecek, T., Llamas, J., Makmura, W., Monroe, T., Martin, J.F., Groves, A.K., Warchol, M., Segil, N. (2020) Organ of Corti size is governed by Yap/Tead-mediated progenitor self-renewal. Proc Natl Acad Sci 117(24): 13552-13561

McGovern, M.M., Randle, M.R., Graves, K.A., Cuppini., C., & Cox, B.C. (2019) Multiple supporting cell subtypes are capable of spontaneous hair cell regeneration in the neonatal mouse cochlea. Development 146: 1-13

McGovern, M.M., Zhou, L., Randle, M.R., & Cox, B.C. (2018) Spontaneous Hair Cell Regeneration is Prevented by Increased Notch Signaling in Supporting Cells Front Cell Neurosci 12:1-17

McGovern, M.M., Brancheck, J.B., Grant, A.C., Graves, K.A., & Cox, B.C. (2017) Quantitative Analysis of Supporting Cell Subtype Labeling among CreER Lines in the Neonatal Mouse Cochlea. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 18(2): 227-245