Research Area: Disease Ecology and Evolution

Xander was born and raised in the Ithaca, NY area and completed his bachelors at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He went on to earn his PhD in chemistry and chemical biology in the labs of Dr. Andrew Fisher and Dr. Peter Beal at the[...]

Josh’s interest in fungal biology started while earning a BS in Microbiology at the University of Minnesota where he did research on the human fungal pathogens Cryptococcus neoformans and Blastomyces dermatitidis in the Nielsen lab at the University of Minnesota. Josh went on to pursue a Ph.D. in[...]

Our lab seeks to understand and prevent spillover of zoonotic pathogens from wildlife to other species. We develop the science of pandemic prevention through collaborative, transdisciplinary science. We work in the field, the lab, and in silico, all with a commitment to translate the science[...]

I investigate what drives hosts’ contributing to pathogen dynamics across biological scales, from host-pathogen molecular interactions to host species interactions. To do so, I combine theoretical, observational, and experimental approaches, and consider various study systems in the lab and in the field, including emerging bat-borne[...]

The Hay lab uses methods from microbial ecology, physiology, genomics, and genetics to understand how human activities affect microbes in diverse environmental settings. For instance, we study how handling of milk collection kits affects the microbiome of pumped human milk. Students will use genomics to[...]

Scott’s research investigates how endocrine signaling networks regulate animals’ physiological responses to pathogenic microbes. He uses the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as a genetically tractable model to investigate the mechanisms by which several key insect hormones and their cognate nuclear receptors both directly and indirectly[...]

The Kim Lab focuses on the general fields of population genetics and evolutionary biology. Dr. Kim is interested in computational problems relevant to understanding evolutionary processes and population dynamics, and in development and application of statistical methods for inference from genetic data. In addition to[...]

We study the transmission and impacts of infectious disease in a changing ocean and mechanisms of immune function in marine invertebrates. We work to identify the value of intact ocean biodiversity and develop strategies towards a healthier ocean.

The Schmidt lab focuses on microbial community diversity, metabolic activity, and genome evolution in aquatic environments. Students will gain experience with microbial ecology and computational tools. As an example project, students can characterize the microbial communities in marine sediments associated with oyster beds to understand[...]

We are actively engaged in defining the signals that enable effector T cells to ‘find’ areas of infection and damage within inflamed tissues. We utilize intravital multiphoton microscopy and optogenetic tools to visualize and manipulate effector CD4+ T cells in situ. These approaches have revealed extrinsic[...]