Our Students

Angel Avalos

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Bart Weimer
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis
Research Interests: Plant-microbe interactions, agricultural microbiomes, bioinformatics

 

Jack Bartlett

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Heather Bischel
Undergraduate Institution: University of Connecticut (B.S. Biological Sciences, Minors: Ecology & Evolutionary Bio./Molecular & Cell Bio)
Research Interests: Contaminant Partitioning to Microbes, Sequestration/Degradation of Contaminants as Mediated by Microbes, Effect of Contaminants on the Microbiome

 

Elizabeth Beer

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Lark Coffey
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Santa Cruz (B.S. Biomolecular Engineering)
Research Interests: Host-microbe Interactions, Mosquito-borne Viruses, One Health

 

Lalita Bechtold

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Andreas Bäumler
Undergraduate Institution: Freie University of Berlin
Research Interests: Host-microbe interactions, microbiomes, gut dysbiosis

 

Amelia Bennett

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Angela Gelli
Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University
Research Interests: Host Microbe interactions of fungal pathogens

 

Achintya Bharadwaj

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Priya Shah
Undergraduate Institution: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (B.S. Biochemistry and Biophysics)
Research Interests: Virus-host protein interactions, flaviviruses

 

Jordan Boeck

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Heather Bischel
Undergraduate Institution: Saint Mary's College of California (B.S. Biology)
Research Interests: Wastewater, Viruses

 

Nico Bonagura

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Tiffany Lowe-Power
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Davis (B.S. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Research Interests: Bactericidal interactions of the Type VI Secretion System

 

Lizbeth Camacho

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Renee Tśolis
Undergraduate Institution: CSU Northridge
Research Interests: Host Microbe Interactions

 

Titash Chatterjee

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Heather Bischel
Undergraduate Institution: UC Santa Cruz
Research Interests: Wastewater Microbiome, Applied Environmental Microbiology, Microbial Ecology

 

Shawn Christensen

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Rachel Vannette
Undergraduate Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Interests: Evolution, plant-pollinator-microbe interactions, microbial ecology, palynology (the study of pollen)

 

Olivia Connor

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Johan Leveau
Undergraduate Institution: Case Western Reserve University (B.S. Biology & Medical Anthropology)
Research Interests: Ecological and evolutionary microbiology, plant-associated microbes

 

Izabelle Viana Costa

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Rodolfo Urbano
Undergraduate Institution: Federal University of Pará (B.S. Biology, M.S Neuroscience and Cell Biology) Research Interests: Host-Pathogen Interactions, Innate Immunity, Actin-Based Motility

 

Mira Conyers

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Johan Leveau
Undergraduate Institution: Oberlin College
Research Interests: Plant-microbe interactions, endophytes, plant pathology

 

Mariah Cuyson

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Angela Gomez-Simmonds
Undergraduate Institution: San Francisco State University (B.S. Microbiology/Asian American Studies, M.S. Cell and Molecular Biology)
Research Interests: Antibiotic Resistance, Bacterial Genomics, Host-Microbe Interactions, Infectious Diseases, Bioinformatics

 

Shweta Deepak

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Mary Kable
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Davis
Research Interests: LAB loads in human fecal samples after fermented food consumption and their lasting effects on the gut microbiome

 

Faith Enriquez

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Jianan Zhang
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Irvine (B.S. Microbiology & Immunology)
Research Interests: Gut Microbiome, Oxidized LiResearch Mentords, Diet-Host-Microbe, Metabolism

 

Christian Erikson

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Jorge Rodrigues
Undergraduate Institution: San Diego State University
Research Interests: Community assembly in wildfire-affected soils, and forest and ag soil health

 

Julia Finestone

[email protected]
Research Mentor: David Mills
Undergraduate Institution: Boston University
Research Interests: Probiotic bacteria, host-microbe interactions

 

Adam Fishburn

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Research Mentor: Priya Shah
Undergraduate Institution: UC Merced
Research Interests: Tropical Infectious Diseases

 

Eileen Garcia-Fuentes

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Sebastian Winter
Undergraduate Institution: Sacramento State (B.S. Microbiology/Chemistry)
Research Interests: Host-microbe interactions, Enteric pathogens, Microbial metabolism

 

Suzanna Gomez

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Sam Díaz-Muñoz
Undergraduate Institution: California State University - Sacramento
Research Interests: Virology, viral pathogenesis, and Influenza A reassortment

 

Charles Graddy

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Douglas Nelson
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis
Research Interests: Microbial ecology

 

Brittany Greenwood

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Christopher Simmons
Undergraduate Institution: Virginia Tech
Research Interests: Microbial interactions, microbial ecology, sustainable agriculture, plant pathology, biotechnology

 

Noah Guillome

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Tiffany Lowe-Power
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Davis (B.S. Global Disease Biology)
Research Interests: Host-Microbe Interactions, Plant Pathogens, T6SS, Bar-seq

 

Amanda Haab

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Derek Bays
Undergraduate Institution: Montana State University (B.S. Microbiology and Cell Biology & Neuroscience)
Research Interests: Gut microbiome/infectious disease

 

Nicholas Hilton

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Scott Dawson
Undergraduate Institution: Brown University
Research Interests: Eukaryotic parasites, cellular biology, host pathogen interaction

 

Hannah Houts

[email protected]
Research Mentor: C. Titus Brown
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis
Research Interests: Microbial evolution and ecology

 

Khoi Huynh

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Dennis Hartigan-O'Connor
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Los Angeles (B.S. Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics)
Research Interests: Microbial pathogenesis, host-pathogen interactions, viral infections, vaccine immunology, and nonhuman primate models of infection

 

Taylor Kan

[email protected]
Undergraduate Institution: San Francisco State University (B.S. Microbiology, Minors in Chemistry and Computing Applications)
Research Interests: Host-microbe interactions

 

Jessica 'Jess' Kretschmer

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Antonio SeraResearch Mentoro-Palacios
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Berkeley (B.S. Microbiology)
Research Interests: Host-Microbe Interactions, Gut Microbiome, Commensal Bacteria, Type VI Secretion System

 

Nithya Krishnakumar

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Danielle Lamay
Undergraduate Institution: UC Davis
Research Interests: Diet, microbe, host interactions

 

Dylan Lanser

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Angela Gelli
Undergraduate Institution: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Research Interests: Host Microbe Interactions

 

Vivian Le

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Hannah Savage
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Los Angeles (B.S. Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics)
Research Interests: Host-Microbe Interactions, Gut Microbiota, Gut Dysbiosis

 

Annika Lee

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Su-Ju Lin
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis
Research Interests: Microbial metabolism and molecular genetics

 

Clancy Lee

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Dennis Hartigan-O’Connor
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests: Interactions between host immune system and viruses as vectors for delivery of therapeutic technologies

 

Ikaika Loque

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Satya Dandekar
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Santa Cruz
Research Interests: Host–pathogen interactions during chronic viral infection, focusing on how cell theraResearch Mentores and bacterial metabolites can restore immune balance, barrier function, and tissue architecture in the gut.

 

Scott Mahan

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Andreas Bäumler
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis
Research Interests: Gut microbiome research, bacterial pathogenesis

 

Kaylah Marcello

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Dawn Sumner
Undergraduate Institution: Michigan State University
Research Interests: Host Microbe Interactions

 

Erin Markle

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Stefan Rothenburg
Undergraduate Institution: Colorado State University
Research Interests: Virology, biotechnology, and host-microbe interactions of viruses, specifically how viruses evade the host innate immune response

 

Stephanie Martinez-Beltran

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Jeroen Saeij
Undergraduate Institution: UC Riverside
Research Interests: Host-parasite interactions, neglected tropical diseases, and protozoan cellular/molecular biology

 

Courtney Mattson

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Sam Díaz-Muñoz
Undergraduate Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Research Interests: Genetic exchange and evolution in segmented RNA bacteriophages

 

Matilda McDaniel

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Su-Ju Lin
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Davis (B.S. Medical & Molecular Microbiology)
Research Interests: Molecular genetics, microbial physiology and metabolism, autophagy

 

Miriam Lepiz

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Sebastian Winter
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Irvine (B.S. Microbiology and Immunology)
Research Interests: Host-Microbe Interactions, Gut Microbiome, Microbial Metabolism, Enteric Pathogens

 

Yvette Morales

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Maria Marco
Undergraduate Institution: California State University - East Bay (B.S. Biological Sciences - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Concentration)
Research Interests: Host-microbial interactions, Secondary metabolites, anti-microbial compounds

 

Claire Morris

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Stephen McSorley
Undergraduate Institution: UC San Diego

 

Andres Orea

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Angela Gelli
Undergraduate Institution: CSU Bakerfield
Research Interests: Eukaryotic pathogens, host pathogen interactions

 

Shruti Parikh

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Christopher Simmons
Undergraduate Institution: University of Washington
Research Interests: Community ecology of microbes in food waste and agricultural systems, fungal-bacterial interactions, and sustainable agriculture

 

Ryan Parisi

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Rachel Vannette
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Santa Barbara
Research Interests: Microbial ecology, evolution, and symbiosis

 

Sebastian Perez-Orozco

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Sebastian Winter
Undergraduate Institution: University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez
Research Interest: Host and microbe interactions, bacterial metabolism.

 

Tyler Powell

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Dawn Sumner
Undergraduate Institution: California State, Los Angeles

 

Alycia ‘Aly’ Rasmussen

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Johan Leveau
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Davis (B.S. Medical and Molecular Microbiology/English)
Research Interests: Bacterial Physiology and Motility, Microbial Ecology, Environmental Microbiology

 

Abigail Ray

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Bennett Penn
Undergraduate Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Research Interests: Host-microbe interactions, microbial ecology

 

Mia Reed

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Esteban Soto
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Davis (B.S. Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, Minor: Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, M.S. Ecology)
Research Interests: Disease ecology; Host-microbe interactions; Vaccine development and efficacy; Infectious disease prevention and therapeutics; Exotic animal health

 

Danielle Riley

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Ben Montpetit
Undergraduate Institution: Colorado State University (B.S. Biochemistry)
Research Interests: Microbe-environment interactions, Heat stress, Eukaryotic gene expression, Co-transcriptional mRNA processing and export, RNA biology

 

Mary Riley

[email protected]
Research Mentor: David Mills
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis
Research Interests: Molecular biology and physiology of microbes

 

Andrew Rogers

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Andreas Bäumler
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Santa Cruz
Research Interests: Bacterial Pathogenesis, Biofilms, and Bacterial Physiology

 

Lezlie Rueda

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Karen Shapiro
Undergraduate Institution: UC Davis
Research Interests: Zoonotic parasites, protozoan pathogen pollution, pathogen transmission dynamics

 

Eduardo Ruiz

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Johan Leveau
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis
Research Interests: The biology and ecology of bacterial multicellularity, plant-microbe interactions

 

Muhammad Adil Salim

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Ilias Tagkopoulos
Undergraduate Institution: University of Peshawar
Research Interests: Microbial systems biology

 

Dino Sbardellati

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Rachel Vannette
Undergraduate Institution: Sonoma State University
Research Interests:

 

Cory Schlesener

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Bart Weimer
Undergraduate Institution: University of Texas, Austin
Research Interests: Microbial evolution and ecology

 

Hikari Seo

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Stefan Rothenburg
Undergraduate Institution: Hokkaido University (B.S. Veterinary Medicine), UC Davis (M.S. Preventive Veterinary Medicine)
Research Interests: Virology, Biotechnology, Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

 

Subah Soni

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Pamela Ronald
Undergraduate Institution: Monmouth University
Research Interests: Environmental microbiomes, plant-microbe interactions, sustainability agriculture

 

Nataly Torres-Mejia

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Bennett Penn
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Santa Cruz (B.S. Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, M.S. Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology)
Research Interests: Host-Pathogen interactions, immune response, infectious disease

 

Jessica Trinh

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Gitta Coaker
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests: The discovery and evolution of immunogenic proteins in plant pathogenic bacteria
Keywords: bacterial evolution/bioinformatics, plant immunity, plant-microbe interactions

 

Perla Vazquez

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Rodolfo Urbano
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Irvine (B.S. Microbiology & Immunology)
Research Interests: Host-Microbe Interactions, Bacterial Pathogenesis, Microbial Ecology

 

Arianna Velarde

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Antonio SeraResearch Mentoro-Palacios
Undergraduate Institution: San Francisco State University (B.S./M.S.)
Research Interests: Microbe-Host Interactions, Bacterial Secretion Systems, Protein-Protein Interactions

 

C. Joy E. Walters

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Satya Dandekar
Undergraduate Institution: Point Loma Nazarene University
Research Interests: Microbial community dynamics in the mammalian GI tract; interactions between gut microbes and host immune system; gastrointestinal disease.

 

Lei Wei

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Maria Marco
Undergraduate Institution: Wellesley College
Research Interests: Host-microbe interactions, microbial impacts on nutrition and human health, proteomics

 

Joseph Williams

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Scott Dawson
Undergraduate Institution: University of California, Davis (B.S. Microbiology)
Research Interests: Cytoskeletal organization and inheritance in eukaryotic cells, Evolutionary cell biology of non-model organisms, Microtubule dynamics and remodeling, Spatial regulation of organelle biogenesis

 

Angelika Zak

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Ben Montpetit
Undergraduate Institution: Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (B.S. Biotechnology, M.S. Medical Biotechnology)
Research Interests: Genetic Engineering of Yeast, Synthetic Biology, Alternative Proteins, Fermentation, Cultivated Meat, Fungal Biology

 

Alexander Zerkle

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Scott Dawson
Undergraduate Institution: UC Berkeley
Research Interests: Evolutionary cell biology, cytoskeletal biology, non-model systems

 

Yuanji ‘Teddy’ Zhao

[email protected]
Research Mentor: Sanchita Bhatnagar
Undergraduate Institution: University of California - Davis (B.S. Cell Biology)
Research Interests: Epigenetic, Neurodevelopment disorders, Gene Therapy