Matthew DeGennaro (born 1975) is an American scientist who seeks to identify mosquito olfactory receptors used in human detection and formulate new volatiles that can effectively disrupt mosquito behavior. DeGennaro is credited with generating the first mutant mosquito utilizing zinc finger nucleases, and he is now working on formulating a “life saving perfume” that can deter these vectors for disease. He has been published in Nature, Developmental Cell, Current Biology, PLOS Genetics, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Early life DeGennaro was born in the Bronx in New York City on September 3, 1975. He grew up in the suburbs of New York with his working-class family. DeGennaro's father, Robert DeGennaro, was an elevator mechanic; and his mother, Lorraine Zoppie, was a legal secretary.
Education DeGennaro obtained his primary education at Valley Cottage Elementary School, and then pursued his secondary education at North Rockland High School. At the age of 15, he was recruited by Bard College at Simon's Rock due to his scores on the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT). After receiving his Associate of Arts Degree in the Natural Sciences in May 1993, he transferred to Bard's College Main Campus. During his time on main campus, he earned his Bachelor of Arts in History and Philosophy of Science and Gender Studies in May 1996, as well as completed all required pre-med courses. Following graduation, DeGennaro originally planned to attend medical school. Although after being waitlisted, he withdrew his applications and moved back to New York City to continue to conduct research. DeGennaro earned his PhD in Developmental Genetics in May 2008 at the New York University School of Medicine.
Marriage DeGennaro and his partner, Christian Larsen, divorced in 2015 after being in a relationship for 14 years.
Research DeGennaro's first lab experience was in the Environmental Medicine Center at the New York University School of Medicine, where he served as a research associate. During the summer of 1992, he researched the retinoblastoma gene in mice, which functions as a tumor suppressor. Within a week of his graduation from Bard's College Main Campus, he negotiated a job at the Oral AIDS Center in the Department of Stomatology at the University of California, San Francisco. While working under Joel Palefsky, he conducted investigations regarding Hairy leukoplakia, an epithelial growth of the Epstein–Barr virus that is associated with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS). In 1998, DeGennaro was offered a position working in Steven Siegelbaum's laboratory in the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Under Siegelbaum, he studied HCN ion channel biophysics and second-authored a paper published in Nature, titled “Molecular mechanism of cAMP modulation of HCN pacemaker channels.” For five months in 2000, DeGennaro continued his HCN ion channel studies as a research associate under Gareth Tibbs in the Department of Pharmacology at Columbia University. Following his time at Columbia, DeGennaro shifted his research focus from neurobiology to immunology. In August 2000, he got a job at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine in Dan Littman's Laboratory as a Lab Manager. During his time in Littman's Lab, he investigated the role of PKC theta in insulin signaling. In August 2002, DeGennaro enrolled at the New York University School of Medicine to pursue his PhD. He worked at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine as a Doctoral Student under Ruth Lehmann. DeGennaro was trained to be a Drosophila geneticist, like his mentor, and researched the connection between reactive oxygen species and the regulation of E-Cadherin, an adhesion molecule. He also performed a reverse genetic screen of the germline-expressed peroxidase gene, which he discovered would impact adhesion if its function was lost. His research, “Peroxiredoxin stabilization of DE-cadherin promotes primordial germ cell adhesion” was published in Developmental Cell in 2011.
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