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2. Past Members
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Personnel

J. Peter Gogarten, PhD

Research Interests: Early evolution of life, evolution of gene families, horizontal gene transfer, inteins, gene duplications Email: gogarten (at) uconn.edu Related Pages: cv as pdf, publications, Google Scholar J. Peter Gogarten is a Board of Trustees distinguished professor of molecular and cell biology and Co-director of the Bioinformatics Facility at the University of Connecticut Biotechnology Services Center. His research on the early evolution of life and on horizontal gene transfer is funded through the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Exobiology and the US National Science Foundation's Assembling the Tree of Life program. He is best known for rooting the tree of life and for his early recognition of horizontal gene transfer as an important force in microbial evolution. Currently, the main focus of his research is comparative genomics and horizontal gene transfer. He is also interested in the early evolution of life and the evolution of molecular parasites.

Artemis "Dyanna" Louyakis, PhD (postdoctoral fellow)

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

Sean Gosselin (graduate student)

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

Yutian Feng (graduate student)

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

Marlene Abouaassi (undergraduate student)

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

Ray Guerrero (undergraduate student)

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

Alumni:

Shannon Soucy, PhD (graduate student)

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

Matthew Fullmer (graduate student)

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

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 Google Scholar

Kristen Swithers (graduate student)

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

Anna Green (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