Savvas is a graduate student under Dr. Jason Gallant at Michigan State University. Savvas’s interests lie in evolutionary developmental biology, as such, he is looking into the genetic regulatory networks that governelectric organ development and regeneration. Interests in developmental biology have driven Savvas to gene knockdowns/outs and his projects employ various techniques for altering gene expression (CRISPR/Cas9, morpholinos and past RNAi work). Savvas works mainly in B. gauderio (gymnotiform) but helped to establish some of the mormyrid breeding and genetic engineering.
Savvas got a dual bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut (Neuroscience and Biology; 2012) and then attended Central Connecticut State University to get an MA in Biomolecular Science (2014). During and following his master’s, Savvas worked as a research technician under Dr. Terri Williams and gained valuable wetlab experience and authored his first peer reviewed publications (2013-2015).
