Gogarten Lab at UConn

Johann Peter Gogarten, PhD

Sophia Gosselin (graduate student)

Research Interests: Genome evolution in prokaryotes, phylogenies from genome wide measures Email: Sophia.Gosselin (at) uconn.edu

Yutian Feng (graduate student)

Research Interests: Rare genes in populations, analysis of metagenomes, Nanohaloarchaea Email: Yutian.Feng (at) uconn.edu Google Scholar

Daniel Phillips (graduate student)

Research Interests: Inteins, Split Inteins, Evolution of Cyanobacteria Email: daniel.s.phillips (at) uconn.edu

Danielle Arsenault (graduate student)

Research Interests: Homing endonucleases, inteins and introns in chloroplast genomes and in haloarchaea Email: danielle.arsenault (at) uconn.edu

Marlene Abouaassi (graduate student)

Research Interests: Niche adapting genes, Email: Marlene.Abouaassi (at) uconn.edu

Alumni:

Research Interests: Rare genes in Haloarchaea Email: Artemis.Louyakis (at) uconn.edu Google Scholar Research Gate

Shannon Soucy, PhD (graduate student)

Research Interests: Evolution and life-cycle of homing endonucleases Email: shannon.soucy_at_uconn.edu Google Scholar

Matthew Fullmer, PhD (graduate student)

Research Interests: Pan-genomes, speciation Email: Matthew.Fullmer (at) uconn.edu Current: University of Auckland Google Scholar

Luiz Thiberio Rangel, PhD (graduate student)

Research Interests: Gene transfer, dissecting the phylogenetic information content of microbial genomes, T3SS Thiberio visited the Gogarten Lab for a year during his PhD research at the University of Sao Paulo.  Email:  lthiberiol at gmail.com Current: MIT Google Scholar

Ray Guerrero (undergraduate student)

Research Interests: Haloarchaeal pangenomes, genome assembly Email: Ray.Guerrero (at) uconn.edu

Ryan Englander (undergraduate student)

Research Interests: Pan-genome of bacteria, Email: ryan.englander (at) uconn.edu

Joshua Skydel (undergraduate student)

Research Interests: Selfish Genes, cooperation between host, parasites, proteins, and protein domains Email: joshua.skydel (at) uconn.edu

Tim Harlow (graduate student)

Research Interests: Evolution of sequence space Email: timothy.harlow (at) uconn.edu Publications on Pubmed

Amanda Dick, PhD (graduate student)

Research Interests: Eukaryogenesis Email: amanda.dick (at) uconn.edu

Seila Omer, PhD (graduate student)

Research Interests: Gene Transfer Agents, evolution of isofunctional genes Email: seila.omer (at) uconn.edu

Erica Lasek-Nesselquist, PhD(Postdoc)

Research Interests: Ribosomal Tree of Life, Gene Transfer inferred from analyses of isofunctional genes Email: elasekness (at) gmail.com Current: Center for Bioinformatics at the Wadsworth Center, NYS Department of Health. Google Scholar

Kristen Swithers, PhD (graduate student)

Research Interests: Measuring gene flow in microbial communities using group I introns Email: Kristen.Swithers (at) uconn.edu Google Scholar

Anna Green, PhD (undergraduate student)

Research Interests: Sequence adaptation to temperature Email: anna.green (at) uconn.edu Publications, Google Scholar

Jeffery M O'Brien (undergraduate student)

Research Interests: Early evolution of Archaea and artifacts of phylogneetic reconstruction Email: obrien.jeffreym (at) gmail.com Link to Honors Thesis

Matt Magda (undergraduate student)

Research Interests: Repeated sequence motifs in bacterial genomes Email: matthew.j.magda -at- uconn.edu

David Williams, PhD (Postdoc)

Research Interests: Exploring the tree of life with Thermotogales and Halobacteriales Email: david.williams(at)uconn.d-dub.org.uk

 Cheryl Andam, Ph.D. (graduate student)

Research Interests: Gene transfer, amino acyl tRNA synthtases, homeoaleles Email: cheryl.andam (at) uconn.edu Google Scholar Current: Faculty at the University of New Hampshire

Greg Fournier, Ph.D.(Graduate Student and Postdoc)

Research Interests: Early evolution of life; evolution in/of sequence space; evolution of the genetic code Email: gregory.fournier (at) uconn.edu Greg's CV Current: Faculty at MIT

 

 Maria Poptsova, Ph.D.(Postdoc)

Research Interests: Exploration of Novel Methods to Visualize Genome Evolution, automated assembly of gene families Email: maria.poptsova (at) uconn.edu Maria's publications at Research Gate

 Kenneth Knowles (undergraduate student)

Research Interests: Evolution of aminoacyl tRNA synthetases Email: kenneth.knowles (at) uconn.edu

 

Kevin Franzman (undergraduate student)

Research Interests: Molecular evolution and HGT of aminoacyl tRNA synthetases Email: kevin.franzman (at) uconn.edu

Dan Hagen (undergraduate student)

Email: dan.hagen (at) uconn.edu

Oriana Perez (Undergraduate Student and Research Specialist)

Research Interests:
    Development of a genetic system for Thermotoga

Email: oriana.perez (at) uconn.edu

Kathleen Price (graduate student)

Research Interests:
    Characterization of the hyperconserved protein in Prochlorococcus

Email: kathleen.price (at) uconn.edu

Jonathan Dipippo (graduate student and joint member of Noll lab and Gogarten lab)

Research Interests:
Physiology and evolution of Thermotogales, Ecology and evolution of microbial communities

Email: jonathan.dipippo (at) uconn.edu

Pascal Lapierre, Ph.D. (graduate student)

Current: Bioinformatics Scientist at UConn

Research Interests:
   Evolution of vacuolar and bacterial ATPases. Molecular Clock Theory applied to whole genomes.
Computational analysis of newly sequenced Frakia sp. genomes

Email: pascal.lapierre (at) uconn.edu

Link to Pascal's Google Scholar Page

Current: Wadsworth Center, Dept of Health, NY

Alireza Ghodsi Senejani, Ph.D. (graduate student)

Current: Postdoctoral fellow at Yale

Research Interests:
   Intein structure, function and evolution

Current: Faculty at the University of New Haven

Kai Shi (graduate student)

Research Interests:
    evolution and recombination of ribosomal RNA in bacteria

Olga Zhaxybayeva, Ph.D. (graduate student and former Planetary Biology Intern)

Currently Assistant Professsor at West Viginia University

Research Interests:
   Comparative genomics, ancient gene duplications, ORFan genes, gene and genome mosaicism

Email: olgazh (at) dal.ca

Olga's Homepage at Dartmouth College; homepage at UConn

Related Pages: Electronic posters

Holly Gardner (graduate student)

Research Interests:
    Role of horizontal gene transfer in bacterial community structure, specifically Thermotogales

Email: holly.gardner (at) uconn.edu

Jinling Huang, Ph.D.(Postdoc)

Jinling is recipient of a National Research Council/NAI Associateship Award, and a member of the
NASA Astrobiology Institute at the MBL in Woods Hole.

Research Interests:
   Early evolution of eukaryotes, horizontal gene transfer, use of transfered genes as taxonomic character. l

Email: Jinling (at) carrot.mcb.uconn.edu

Current: Faculty at East Carolina University

Catherine E. Igartua (Katie) (undergraduate student)

Research Interests:
    protein space and evolution

Current: Grad School University of Chicago

Email: kigartua (at) gmail.com

Rima Desai (graduate student)

Research Interests:
    gene transfer of inulinase genes in Bacilli

Email: rima (at) carrot.mcb.uconn.edu

Lina Pezzella (undergraduate student)

Research Interests:
    simulation of genome evolution

Email: lina.pezzella (at) uconn.edu

Current: Harvard Medical School

Hasan Khalil (undergraduate student)

Research Interests:
    simulation of genome evolution

Email: mian.hasan.khalil_at_gmail.com

Current: Programmer at FactSet

Lorraine Olendzenski, Ph.D.

Research Interests:
   Early Evolution of Eukaryotes; Horizontal Gene Transfer

Email: lolendzenski (at) stlawu.edu

Related Pages: Lorraines homepage

Current: Associate Professor at St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY
PostDoc: Education and Public Outreach Coordinator, NASA Astrobiology Institute at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA

Greg Roussos (graduate student)

Research Interests:
   Intein structure, function and evolution

Email: gregory.roussos (at) huskymail.uconn.edu

Andreas Bernauer (exchange student)

Research Interests: Compositional bias and substitution matrices

Email: Bernauer (at) informatik.uni-tuebingen.de

Currrent: Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Universität Tübingen

Sushma Samala M.Sc. (graduate student)

Research Interests:
    evolution of ribosomal RNA in bacteria

Email: sushma.samala (at) huskymail.uconn.edu

Daniel Schock-Kusch (undergraduate exchange student from FH Mannheim)

(PhD Universität Heidelberg, InnovationLab GmbH)

Email: daniel.schock-kusch (at) innovationlab.biz

Reshma Shial, M.Sc. (graduate student and former undergraduate student)

Research Interests:
   Archaeal type ATPases in Deinococcaceae, culturing Thermus species

Email: rshial (at) hotmail.com

Currrent: UConn Medical School

Jeremy Draghi, Ph.D. (undergraduate student, PhD from Yale)

Research Interests:
   Application of resistor and diode networks to study genome evolution, evolution of evolvability

Email: jeremydraghi (at) hotmail.com

Current: Postdoc with Joshua Plotkin at UPenn

Luis Delaye, Ph.D. (NASA Planetary Biology Intern)

Research Interests:
 Origin of the genetic code, ancient gene duplications, evolution of aminoacyl tRNA synthetases

Email: infinito (at) SERVIDOR.UNAM.MX

Related Pages: pictures, homepage

Current: Profssor of Genetics, Cinvestav Unidad Irapuato, Mexico

Prof. Dr. Günter Claus

Research Interests:
  Endo inulinases in strange bacilli

Email: guenterclaus (at) gmx.de

Related Pages: Pictures

Current: Professor at the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Scot Magnotta, Ph.D.

Research Interests:
   V-ATPase subunit encoding gene families in Arabidopsis

Email: smagnotta (at) mail.hartford.edu

Related Pages: pictures, graduation party

Current position: Associate Professor at Montgomery College, Germantown, MD

Parin Chaivisuthangkura, Ph.D.

Research Interests:
   Acid invertase isoforms in Arabidopsis

Email: parinc (at) yahoo.com

Related Pages: pictures, cv, hompage

Currently: Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biology, Faculty of Science, Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Richard W. Mercier, Ph.D.

Research Interests:
   Isoforms of cell wall bound acid invertase

Email: rick (at) carrot.mcb.uconn.edu

Related Pages: cv

Currently: Research Professor at the University of Connecticut

Lei Liu, Ph.D.

Former graduate student, and post doc with Dong-Guk Shin,
continued to collaborate with the Gogarten lab on the
detection of horizontal gene transfer events

Related Pages: homepage

Current position:
   Professor at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, CAS

Elena Hilario, Ph.D.

Research Interests:
   The V-ATPase in Giardia. Horizontal gene transfer, Inteins

Email: ehilario (at) HORTRESEARCH.CO.NZ

Related Pages: pictures, cv, selected slides from Elena's thesis defense

Currently: Staff Scientist at HortResearch, Auckland, New Zealand

Gail Berardino-Lang, M.Sc., Ph.D. (undergraduate student, PhD from Colorado State University)

Research Interests:
   microbial communities in the soil
   horizontal gene transfer

Currently: Graduate Student at Colorado State University

Kristen Dantscher (undergraduate student)

Research Interests:
   Culturing chytrids, V-ATPases in eukaryotic microbes

Email: kdantsch (at) hotmail.com

Related Pages: Pictures

Ryan Murphey (undergraduate student, PhD from Harvard, JD from NYU)

Research Interests:
   Archaeal genes in Deinococcaceae

Email: ryan.murphey_at_ropesgray.com

Currently: Ropes & Gray's Intellectual Property Group

Reema Gulati (undergraduate student)

Research Interests:
   Culturing protists, V-ATPases in putatively deep branching Eukaryotes

Email: reemareems (at) yahoo.com

Currently: Research Assistant at the Keck Foundation Biotechnology Resource Laboratory at Yale University

Torsten Schadtle (graduate student)

Research Interests:
    Inteins in Thermoplasma acidophilum

Email:

Currently: Munich

Maria B. Gogarten, Ph.D. (Postdoc)

Research Interests:
   Evolution and function of vacuolar type ATPases

Email: mgogarten_at_gmail.com

Currently: Writer

Carmen Soileau, Ph.D. (Postdoc)

Research Interests:
    Isolation of cDNAs, characterization of invertase isoforms

Email: Lena.C.Soileau_at_aphis.usda.gov

Currently: USDA APHIS PHP specialist in invertebrate zoology for the plant pest permit unit

Thomas Starke, Ph.D. (graduate student, PhD)

Research Interests:
   Evolution of ATPase and ATP synthases

Email:

Currently: Chairperson for the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Nashville State Technical Institute.

Timothy Linkkila (graduate student, MSc)

Research Interests:
   Evolution of ATPase and ATP synthases

Email:

Currently: Patent Attorney, Vice President, Intellectual Property and Chief Patent Counsel, Mascoma Corporation