Masters’ Students:
Taylor Ranson
During her undergraduate research, Taylor investigated the impact of three central metabolism mutations of E. coli on their ability to form biofilms. She is now investigating biofilm structure of E. coli and P. aeruginosa from our recent spaceflight experiment This picture shows Taylor loading a nanopore sequencer at NASA.
Evan Ortiz
Evan is working on a joint collaborative study with Jelena Tesic in computer science to develop a program to analyze microscopy images of microbial induced corrosion from our recent spaceflight experiment. This is another exciting interdisciplinary project as it involves coding and machine learning.
Amber Busboom
Amber is designing a qPCR protocol to identify and monitor individual members of a five-species microbial population that is commonly isolated from the water recovery system in the International Space Station.
Undergraduate Students:
Andrea Iturbe and Mikayla Forge
Andrea and Mikayla are investigating the ability of hydrogel formulations to inhibit or prevent biofilms in lab conditions using three bacteria commonly associated with chronic wounds. This work is being done in collaboration with Tania Betancourt (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and her graduate student, Jessica Peterson.
Samantha Tischler and Annelise Jeffers
Samantha and Annelise are investigating the ability of phenolic compounds from tea to inhibit biofilm formation and quorum regulation in Chromobacterium violaceum.
Noemie Clemençeau and Maia Martin
Noemie and Maia are investigating the susceptibility of recent spaceflight and ground control isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli to silver fluoride.