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February 2024: Sam skibicki
Sam Skibicki is a PhD candidate in Dr. Craig Barrett’s lab who is planning to submit his master’s thesis for publication in Systematic Botany. Sam’s upcoming publication, Phylogenetics, Taxonomy, and Chromosome Number Analysis of Sanvitalia (Asteraceae-Heliantheae-Zinniinae), contains a novel chromosome count of Sanvitalia fruticosa, a species endemic to just two states in Mexico. Sam plans to finish his PhD within the next year. Keep up the great work, Sam!
january 2024: Hannah DeHetre
Hannah DeHetre is a PhD student in the Brzostek lab who studies how plant-microbial interactions in temperate forest soils drive the ability of these soils to sequester carbon from the atmosphere long-term. Hannah’s current projects at the Fernow Experimental Forest and Elizabeth Woods aim to investigate how ecosystem-scale factors such as nitrogen deposition and dominant mycorrhizal association alter these plant-microbial interactions and subsequent ecosystem processes. This research better informs models that predict how forests can act to mitigate climate change. Hannah plans to apply this work toward an upcoming project researching the impact of Beech Bark Disease on carbon and nitrogen cycling in Appalachian soils. Keep up the great work, Hannah!
December 2023: Barrett-Anne Briggs
Barrett-Anne Briggs is a PhD Candidate in Dr. Tim Driscoll's lab. Her research focuses on transcriptomic profiling of the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, through its primary tick vector, Ixodes scapularis. She primarily works with Borrelia burgdorferi in culture and in the tick vector to identify novel characteristics that could be potentially used as targets for a future Lyme disease vaccine. Her current experiments involve using novel CRIPSR targets to knockout nutrient acquisition genes within the Borrelia burgdorferi genome. Barrett-Anne was recently awarded the best graduate student poster at the annual WVU Biology Department retreat. Congratulations, Barrett-Anne!
November 2023: Emerson Towey
Emerson Towey is a PhD candidate in Dr. Tim Driscoll’s lab. Emerson’s research focuses on characterizing host cell-specific interactions during spotted fever group Rickettsia infection. They primarily work with Rickettsia rickettsii, a tick-borne pathogen that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF). Through the identification of key interactions between R. rickettsii and the various cell types it infects within the human host, their goal is to identify novel targets to aid in the development of an RMSF vaccine. Emerson was recently awarded the best graduate student talk at the annual WVU Biology Department retreat. Congratulations, Emerson!
October 2023: jacob starkey
Jacob Starkey is a PhD candidate in Dr. Eric Horstick’s lab. Jacob has a publication in preprint utilizing previously described zebrafish visuomotor circling behavior to compare teleost species diverged over the past 200 million years, which discovered a strong conservation for biased circling behavior. Jacob’s research also discovered a complete loss of behavior in the blind Astyanax mexicanaus, a species with both naturally sighted and blind variants, but not in experimental blinding of sighted zebrafish or A. mexicanus. Combining this data with an analysis of thalamic responses in sighted and blind fish uncovered two overlapping pathways for visuomotor behavior determination: vision-dependent and vision-independent. Congratulations, Jacob! You can find a preprint of Jacob’s publication here.
September 2023: hana thixton-nolan
Hana Thixton-Nolan is a PhD candidate in Dr. Craig Barrett's lab whose research focuses on mycoheterotrophic orchids. This summer Hana went to Colorado to do a field germination experiment testing the consequences of host specificity, along with an in-depth population study in the Rocky Mountains. Colorado has both varieties of the summer spotted coralroot orchid (Corallorhiza maculata vars. maculata and occidentalis) with variable climate that makes it a perfect study site. You can follow all of Hana’s research adventures on Instagram @han.thixnol_evolvbio.
august 2023: zoe pagliaro
Zoe Pagliaro is a MS student in Dr. Edward Brzostek's lab whose recently published research focuses on oilcane, a genetically modified version of sugarcane designed to enhance fuel conversion efficiency. This research found oilcane did not substantially alter soil carbon dynamics and led to small but significantly greater soil carbon gains than sugarcane, suggesting transitioning to oilcane may enhance the sustainability of the bioenergy feedstock. Congratulations Zoe! Read Zoe’s paper here.