Spela Goricki

I obtained my doctoral degree in 2006 at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, on phylogenetic and taxonomic studies of the European blind cave salamander, or the olm, Proteus anguinus. From 2007 to 2012 I was a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. William Jeffery’s lab at the University of Maryland. There I was investigating eye degeneration of the Mexican blind cavefish Astyanax mexicanus, a model organism for studying evolution in cave-adapted vertebrates. In 2009 I became interested in regeneration of pigmented organs in the oral siphon of the sea squirt Ciona intestinalis. The studies of molecular mechanisms of siphon regeneration, which I was conducting at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA were designed to establish Ciona as a model for studying regeneration in non-vertebrate chordates. My research interests thus include a wide range of topics, from biodiversity, biogeography, systematic biology and taxonomy to evolutionary and developmental biology, aging and non-human stem cell research. In recent years I have been involved in the development of the methodology to search for the olm Proteus in karst groundwater through detection of its DNA in water samples collected from springs, wells or caves (projects of the Tular Cave Laboratory, Slovenia). At home, I'm raising seven ducks.

October 2016