• Publications
• Research
• Lab Personnel
1. Current Members
2. Past Members
• Research
• Presentations
• Pictures

Personnel

J. Peter Gogarten

Research Interests: Early evolution of life, evolution of gene families, horizontal gene transfer, inteins, gene duplications Email: gogarten (at) uconn.edu Related Pages: picture, old pictures, cv, cv as pdf, publications

Maria Poptsova (Postdoc)

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

David Williams (Postdoc)

Research Interests: Exploring the tree of life with Thermotogales and Halobacteriales Email: david.2williams (at) uconn.edu

Greg Fournier (Postdoc)

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

Kristen Swithers (graduate student)

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

Tim Harlow (graduate student)

Research Interests: Evolution of sequence space Email: T.Harlow (at) huskymail.uconn.edu

Cheryl Andam (graduate student)

Research Intrests: Email: cheryl.andam (at) uconn.edu

Kenneth Knowles (undergraduate student)

Research Intrests: Email: kenneth.knowles (at) uconn.edu

Kevin Franzman (undergraduate student)

Research Intrests: Email: kevin.franzman (at) uconn.edu

Dan Hagen (undergraduate student)

Research Intrests: Email: dan.hagen (at) uconn.edu

Past lab-mates:

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) huskymail.uconn.edu

Link to Pascal's C.V.

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

Current: Postdoctoral fellow at Yale

Research Interests:
   Intein structure, function and evolution

Ali's Homepage: http://web.uconn.edu/ali/

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

Kai Shi (graduate student)

Research Interests:
    evolution and recombination of ribosomal RNA in bacteria

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

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

Currently Izaak Walton Killam Postdoctoral Fellow at Dalhousie University.

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

Email: olgazh (at) dal.ca

Olga's Homepage: http://carrot.mcb.uconn.edu/~olgazh/

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) huskymail.uconn.edu

Jinling Huang (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

Catherine E. Iguartua (Katie) (undergraduate student)

Research Interests:
    protein space and evolution

Current: Research tech for Bayer

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) huskymail.uconn.edu

Hasan Khalil (undergraduate student)

Research Interests:
    simulation of genome evolution

Email: hasan.khalil (at) huskymail.uconn.edu

Lorraine Olendzenski, Ph.D.

Research Interests:
   Early Evolution of Eukaryotes; Horizontal Gene Transfer

Email: lolendzenski (at) stlawu.edu

Related Pages: Lorraines homepage, Lorraines beautiful garden (#1 and #2),  other pictures

Current: Assistant 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)

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

Sushma Samala M.Sc. (graduate student)

Research Interests:
    evolution of ribosomal RNA in bacteria

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

Daniel Schock (undergraduate exchange student from FH Mannheim)

Email: d.schock (at) gmx.de

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: Student at UConn Medical School

Jeremy Draghi (undergraduate student)

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

Email: jeremydraghi (at) hotmail.com

Current: Graduate Student at Yale University

Luis Delaye (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

Current: UNAM, Mexico DF, 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

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: Assistant Professor at the University of Hartford

Parin Chaivisuthangkura, Ph.D.

Research Interests:
   Acid invertase isoforms in Arabidopsis

Email: parinc (at) yahoo.com

Related Pages: pictures, cv

Currently: Lecturer at 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 Associate at the University of Connecticut

Lei Liu, Ph.D.

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

Email: leiliu (at) uiuc.edu

Current position:
   Director of Bioinformatics
   W. M. Keck Center for Comparative and Functional Genomics
   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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. (undergraduate student)

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)

Research Interests:
   Archaeal genes in Deinococcaceae

Email: ryan_murphey (at) student.hms.harvard.edu

Currently: Harvard Medical School

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