Dr. Wells earned his B.S. in Biology at The College of Idaho, then a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan. While at Michigan, he uncovered the molecular mechanism of hermaphrodite X chromosome gene regulation in the model organism C. elegans, and he earned a CRLT Graduate Teaching Certificate. Dr. Wells then completed postdoctoral training and worked as a Research Associate at Johns Hopkins University, applying Molecular Biology research methods to study mosquito salivary glands as a target organ for novel strategies to prevent pathogen transmission to people.
Dr. Wells completed a Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship and has successfully mentored research trainees numerous times, leading to conference poster presentations and multiple co-authorships in published studies. While in Maryland, Dr. Wells also completed a Teaching Fellowship at Towson University and served as an Adjunct Professor there for three years teaching Introductory Biology for non-majors and a graduate-level seminar course. Dr. Wells has been lead or co-author on many published research articles, has an interest in mining high-throughput genomic data sets, and continues to pursue research projects related to mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases.
