Courtney L. McGinnis

Courtney L. McGinnis, PhD a first-generation college graduate that now calls Hamden home. She is currently a Professor of Biology and Medical Sciences. She completed her PhD in Physiology and Neurobiology at the University of Connecticut and a sabbatical at Yale University in Dr. Stefani Nicoli’s laboratory where she learned how to develop multiplexed CRISPR-Cas9 systems. Her teaching which garnered the Quinnipiac University 2017 Excellence in Teaching Award, focuses on Anatomy and Physiology and Physiological Models of Human Disease and she maintains an active research lab that utilizes Zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism to study molecular mechanisms of endocrine disrupting chemicals.

The McGinnis lab is interested in determining the molecular mechanism of action of endocrine disrupting chemicals, while working toward an understanding of zebrafish sexual differentiation. Currently the McGinnis lab examines the Quinnipiac River by gas chromatography mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS) for the presence of phthalates and plasticizers with external grant support from the Quinnipiac River Foundation.