Our team

Assistant Professor of
Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology

Mark Dombrovski, PhD

Dr. Mark Dombrovski is a molecular and systems neuroscientist driven to understand how genetic programs define the precise wiring of the brain. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry with honors from Moscow State University in Russia and completed his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Virginia with Dr. Barry Condron, where he studied the neuroethology of visually guided social behaviors in Drosophila. As a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Larry Zipursky at UCLA, Mark combined molecular genetics, connectomics, single-cell genomics and behavior to uncover how neuronal recognition molecules specify synaptic connectivity in the Drosophila visual system. His work integrated multimodal perspectives to reveal how neurons acquire distinct wiring identities during circuit assembly in the developing brain. Mark„s research has been supported by a Jefferson Fellowship from during his Ph.D., a Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship during his postdoctoral training, and recently an NIH/NEI K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award. The Dombrovski Lab will open in July 2026 in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, & Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. Mark is excited to begin assembling a team that will use genetic, genomic, and functional approaches to investigate basic principles logic of brain.
In his free time, Mark enjoys traveling, running, hiking, and exploring non-canonical animal model systems.

Principal Investigator
he/him
Full CV here

We are hiring at all levels!
If you are interested in joining, click here!

Our Values

🔍 We believe that curiosity matters more than expertise, and that potential is measured not by what someone already knows but by what they are eager to learn.

💡Our lab will be a place where ideas are shared freely, questions are valued as much as answers, and discipline coexists with imagination and creativity.

🤲 We see science as a collective process — one that is based on openness, kindness, and the ability to rethink assumptions.

🚀 We learn together, fail together, and discover together.