Matthew G. Niepielko, Ph.D.
Research Interests
Dr. Matthew G. Niepielko is an Assistant Professor of Computational Biology and Activities Coordinator for the Group Summer Scholars Research Program for high school students at Kean. His laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms that regulate animal development and fertility using different species of Drosophila (fruit flies) as a model system. Dr. Niepielko has identified several developmental mechanisms that mediate the evolution of morphologies during Drosophila eggshell formation. He has also discovered key mechanisms that regulate cell polarity during Drosophila development by employing a novel technique that couples biological experiments with computational analyses. The Niepielko Lab currently explores how germ cell mRNA composition alters animal fertility and how changes in gene expression drives evolution.
Dr. Niepielko received his Ph.D. in Computational and Integrative Biology from Rutgers University in 2014. In 2016, he received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service from the National Institutes of Health to complete his postdoctoral training at Princeton University. In 2021, he was awarded an Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) from the National Institutes of Health to support research activities at Kean University. In 2023, Dr. Niepielko was awarded the Faculty Early Career Development Program Award (CAREER Award) that will fund his research and STEM education program, New Jersey's Research Alliance for Inclusive STEM Education (NJ-RAISE), which focuses on including high school students and undergraduates in STEM research training and education opportunities.