Role: Potential Undergraduate Mentor

My lab has a broad interest in the structure and function of viral envelope proteins, and how genomic mutations lead to changes in the envelope proteins and control viral pathogenesis. We primarily study influenza viruses of humans and animals, and coronaviruses, principally, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and[...]

My lab studies how stress and social interactions alter the biological state of organisms and their gut microbes. Much of our work uses free-living passerine birds as systems to test the gut microbial impacts of stress and social connectedness. Student projects will involve field work[...]

The unifying themes of my ongoing research program are seeking to understand the underlying mechanisms that control the pathogenesis and disease associated with bacterial infections, as well as developing control strategies for the bacteria or its associated disease. The main focus for the past years[...]

The Poole Lab studies how factors like substrate availability and host genes influence the dynamics of symbiotic oral and gut microbial communities. Students will conduct in vitro studies on saliva samples to characterize the response of microbes to a panel of carbohydrate substrates. They will use bioinformatics[...]

The Peters lab studies microbial evolution via mobile genetic elements. We are interested in how mobile elements evolve new functions within host-associated bacteria. Students in the lab will develop skills in bioinformatics, molecular genetics, and biochemistry. An example student project is using sequencing data to[...]

We study the mechanisms underlying ecological interactions between fungi and bacteria.  Student projects will focus on current work to characterize the bacteria associated with mycorrhizal fungi in poorly studied desert habitats in California and Israel. Students will learn culture and microscopy techniques, and phylogenetic analysis.

The Moreau lab focuses on the symbiotic factors that drive evolutionary diversification in ants. One example question is whether seed-eating ants have distinct gut microbiomes to facilitate their use of this food source. Students will characterize the gut microbiomes of ant species using 16S amplicon[...]

We study how lipids mediate host-microbiome interactions.   A potential student project in the lab involves using techniques developed in the lab to identify novel interactions of saturated fatty acids with the gut microbiome and developing advanced techniques in anaerobic microbial genetics to determine the consequences[...]

The Hendry lab studies how environmental bacteria interact with insect hosts. Our main focus is understanding how plant-associated bacteria influence the health and behavior of insect herbivores. Students will design mesocosm experiments with culturable bacteria growing on plants and herbivorous insects, using skills in bacteriology[...]

Our research uses a combination of molecular, genetic, and proteomics approaches to understand how insects transmit plant pathogens and how pathogens manipulate host plants to ensure replication and transmission. For instance, students will characterize the transmission rates of viruses by different genotypes of aphids in[...]