Rick Crouse, PhD

Rick grew up in Palatka, Florida and attended the University of South Florida, majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology. During undergrad, Rick interned at Draper Laboratory, researching microfluidic in vitro cell culture systems for both the brain and liver. His senior thesis involved determining the conditions necessary for long term primary liver cell culture that allowed for study of malarial liver infections. Rick was heavily involved in the service organization Rotary International while at USF. After graduation, he worked as a Preclinical Staff Scientist at Intezyne Technologies, evaluating the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of a novel drug delivery technology for cancer therapeutics. Rick is a rising fifth year PhD student in Dr. Marina Picciotto’s lab, investigating the effect of acetylcholine on appetitive learning in mice. He spends his free time forging relationships between graduate student groups and New Haven neighborhood leaders by bringing science activities to community events, gardening, walking his two cats, and playing board/card/video games.