Lab Research Team

Caitlin Tice, Ph.D.

Dr. Caitlin Tice is an Instructor and independent investigator at Rowan University with a research focus on how chronic conditions such as HIV and repetitive head trauma disrupt brain homeostasis. She earned her B.A. in Biochemistry from Washington & Jefferson College and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, where her work identified how HIV-driven signaling pathways impair glymphatic clearance through aquaporin-4 (AQP4) mislocalization. Her research now integrates human tissue analysis, cellular models, and multi-omics approaches to uncover shared mechanisms underlying HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Before joining Rowan, Dr. Tice trained at the National Institutes of Health as a Cancer Research Training Award Fellow, where she contributed to the development of prostate cancer organoid models for drug screening and early-phase clinical testing. At Rowan, she continues to pursue translational research while also serving as the faculty advisor for the Graduate School’s science outreach program, which connects students with K–12 classrooms in underserved communities. She is also a course instructor in the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum at Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine, where she helps guide future physicians through small-group case-based education. Dr. Tice is committed to collaborative science, impactful mentorship, and building bridges between molecular discovery and community impact.