Past Postdocs:

  • Irene Newton – 2008-2010; Professor in Department of Biology, Chair of Microbiology Section, Indiana University.
  • Bethany Kent – June 2008 to June 2010; now Scientific Director of Microbiology and Immunology at PathGroup, Nashville, TN
  • Kristin Jernigan – January 2010 to October 2013; now Associate Professor of Biology at Columbia State Community College
  • Robert Brucker – 2013-2014; now Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of DermBiont, Boston, MA
  • Lisa Funkhouser-Jones – February 2016 to May 2016; now Research Specialist at Texas A&M University, laboratory of Jon Sakre
  • Kevin Kohl – 2014 to 2017; Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
  • Aram Mikaelyan – 2016 to 2018; Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University
  • Edward van Opstal – 2018 to 2019; Lead Scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton
  • Jean Lim – 2019; Scientific Researcher at the University of South Florida in Mya Breitbart’s lab
  • Junhui Li – 2019-2020: Senior Postdoctoral Scientist at the University College, Cork, Ireland
  • Brittany Leigh – 2017-2021; Senior Account Executive at LifeSci Communications
  • Karissa Cross – 6/2019-1/2022; Senior Account Executive at LifeSci Communications
  • Liz Mallot – 9/2020-6/2022; Assistant Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis

Past Graduate Students:

  • Robert Brucker, PhD, 2008-2013 – Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder of DermBiont.
  • Jason Metcalf PhD, MD, 2011-2014 – Pediatric Hospitalist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
  • Lisa Funkhouser-Jones, PhD, 2009-2016 – Research Specialist at Texas A&M University, laboratory of Jon Sakre
  • Daniel LePage, PhD, 2012-2016 – Quality Manager microbiologist at Creature Comforts, Athens, GA
  • Edward (Teddy) van Opstal, PhD, 2013-2018 – Lead Scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton
  • Andrew Brooks, PhD, 2013-2019 – Postdoc in Michael Synder’s lab at Stanford University
  • Jessamyn Perlmutter, PhD, 2015-2020 – NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in Rob Unckless Lab at University of Kansas
  • Dylan Shropshire, PhD, 2015-2020 – Assistant Professor of Biology at Lehigh University, PA
  • Kelly Needles, M.S., June 2020 – December 2021, MD Candidate at Wake Forest School of Medicine
  • Rob Markowitz, 2019-2022, Principal Scientist, Clinical Translation and Omics, The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc.

Past Research Assistants:

  • Courtney Zecher – June 2006 to July 2008; Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley: Currently a Research Coordinator at Population Health Sciences Program at the University of Illionois at Chicago.
  • Michelle Gourley – September 2005 to December 2006; Currently Instructor in Biological Sciences at Indiana University South Bend. Masters degree from Western Michigan University (thesis work described an in situ association between W. pipientis and filarial worm protein, collagenase).
  • Meghan Chafee – November 2008 to May 2010, Research Assistant II; 2010-2013 RAIII at Marine Biological Laboratory in Dr. Sheri Simmons Laboratory; PhD in marine metagenomics at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen, Germany; Scientist at Seres Therapeutics.
  • Victor Schmidt – Spring 2010; Research Assistant II; Currently a postdoc in Dr. Ruth Ley’s lab, Department of Microbiome Science, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany.
  • Andrew Williams – RA August 2010 to August 2011; M.S. at Vanderbilt; currently a law student at the University of Louisville.
  • Joey Simmons – Summer 2011 – July 2013; Research Assistant II. Currently Lab Manager in Ken Lao’s lab at Vanderbilt.
  • Dianna Bojanova – 2015-2016, Research Assistant I. 2016-2017, Faculty Research Assistant at University of Maryland. Currently a graduate student at the University of Southern California.
  • Jungmin (Danny) On – Spring of 2016-2017; Currently a medical student at the University of Georgia in Athens.
  • Emily Layton – Summer of 2017 – Currently a SyBBURE Searle Undergraduate Research Scholar in the Bordenstein lab.
  • Caitlin Sprowls – Research Assistant II – February 2018 to January 2020
  • Athena Lemon – Research Assistant II – February 2020 to September 2021
  • Kara Bell – Research Assistant I – June 2021 to January 2022
  • Bella Ritchie – Research Assistant II – June 2020 to April 2022 – Currently a PhD candidate in Maya Breitbart’s lab at University of South Florida
  • Luiz Mendez – Research Assistant, Vanderbilt University and Technician, Penn State University

Past Bioinformaticians:

  • Hege Lizarralde– 2007-2008; Scientific Informatics Developer
  • Shefali Setia – June 2010 – October 2011; Now Bioinformatics Analyst at Pennsylvania State University in Ritchie Lab
  • Rini Pauly – 2011 to 2012 – Now Bioinformatics Analyst at Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University

Past Undergraduate Students:

  • John Chen (2008) – Vanderbilt Med School 2012-2016, Now Internal Medicine Resident at Emory University
  • Carolyn Foley (2009) – Dept of Anesthesiology at Michigan Medicine
  • Ross Tollkansen (2009)
  • Zhongyang Cao (2009-2010)
  • Jonathan Herrick (2011)
  • Aaron Noll (2010) – Vanderiblt Med School 2012-2016, Co-author on discovery of hybrid mortality evolution in the lab (BMC Evolutionary Biology link)
  • Marisa Pinchas (2011-2012) – Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Co-author on discovery of hybrid mortality evolution in the lab (BMC Evolutionary Biology link)
  • Stephanie Sehnert (2010-2012)
  • Emma Steigerwald (2012) – now graduate student at UC Berkeley
  • Ashley Saulsberry (2014-2015), Littlejohn Summer Research Scholar, First author on discovery of hybrid mortality evolution in the lab (BMC Evolutionary Biology link)
  • Minhee Jo (2013-2015) Vanderbilt Class of 2016; Coauthor on wRec genome publication (PeerJ link)
  • Paul Snider (2013-2015) Vanderbilt Class of 2016
  • Melissa Halstead (2016) Vanderbilt Class of 2019
  • Katherine Carbonell (2016) Vanderbilt Class of 2019
  • Jungmin (Danny) On (2016) Vanderbilt Class of 2016; now medical student at the University of Georgia in Athens. Coauthor on identification of genes that cause cytoplasmic incompatibility (Nature link and PNAS link)
  • Ananya Sharma (2015-2018) Vanderbilt Class of 2019; Coauthor on discovery of Wds gene that suppresses titers of maternally-transmitted Wolbachia (Current Biology link)
  • Cassie Slaybaugh (2017-2018) Vanderbilt Class of 2021.
  • Helen Zhou (2016-2018) Vanderbilt Class of 2018; Coauthor on identification of genes that cause cytoplasmic incompatibility (PNAS link); Software Developer for McMaster-Carr; now Columbia Law School, Class of 2022.
  • Rachel Rosenberg (2018-2020) Vanderbilt Class of 2022; Bordenstein lab assistant and undergraduate researcher. Coauthor on a manuscript on cytoplasmic incompatibility factor genes.
  • Emily Layton (2016-2020) Vanderbilt Class of 2020; coauthored two papers and first authored a third paper in mBio on the paternal grandmother age effect of cytoplasmic incompatibility. In December 2017, she was awarded a SyBBURE Searle Undergraduate Research Fellowship that supported her research in the lab till 2020.
  • Jane Myers (2016-2020) Vanderbilt Class of 2020; Jane coauthored a paper on the microbial genetic basis of male killing in mSystems.
  • Victoria Stewart (8/2019-5/2021) Vanderbilt Class of 2022; Victoria studied the evolution of the cytoplasmic incompatibility proteins from phage WO of Wolbachia and assisted with insect stock maintenance.
  • Cami Westlake (8/2019-5/2021) Vanderbilt Class of 2021; Cami served as the inaugural Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative Communications Specialist and helped found the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Microbiome Society. She also coauthored a paper on the impacts of animal hybridization on the microbiome and vice versa. Cami will next pursue her MD/PhD degrees.
  • Henry Pliske (2019-2021) Vanderbilt Class of 2022
  • Christina Valentine (2020-2022) Vanderbilt Class of 2022; Christina served as the Vanderbilt Microbiome Initiative Communications Specialist
  • Alex Shen (2020-2022) Vanderbilt Class of 2023
  • Mahip Kalra (2018-2022) Vanderbilt Class of 2022; now Research Assistant in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  • Asia Miller (2018-2022) Vanderbilt Class of 2022; now Research Assistant in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  • Madi Baltagulov (2021-2022) Vanderbilt Class of 2024; now Undergraduate Researcher in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Past High School Students:

  • Rachel Martin (2008, 2009)
  • Andrew Johnson (2007 & 2008)
  • Merry Batter (2006 & 2007)
  • Pia Hugus (2005)
  • Jordan Winters (2009 – 2010, Vanderbilt School of Science and Math)
  • Hyunjeong Jin (2009 – 2010, Vanderbilt School of Science and Math)
  • Kanyanta Mwenya (2009 – 2010, Vanderbilt School of Science and Math)
  • Fiona Broadie (Summer of 2016)
  • Roman Johnson (Fall of 2019)