Lab Alumni

Former lab members

NAME position time in lab last known position
Joseph Proto Technician Sept. 2016 – Jul. 2017
Yi Lei Postdoc Jun. 2019 – May. 2020 Senior Manager, WuXi TIDES
Matthew Bizer Technician May. 2019 – Jul. 2020 Environmental Engineer, Verdantas LLC.
Casey Guardia Master’s Student Aug. 2019 – Dec. 2020 Captain, U.S. Air Force
Nguyet Minh Thi Dao Postdoc Sep. 2020 – Dec. 2020
Krystal Flood Ph.D. Student Jun. 2019 – Jan. 2021 Lab tech, Matthew Disney Lab, UF Scripps
Priyanka Pistolwala Technician Jul. 2020 – Jan. 2021 Senior QMS Specialist, Exactech
Christopher J. Fields Ph.D. Student Jan. 2017 – Dec. 2021 Postdoctoral Researcher, Baylor College of Medicine, Jeremy Wilusz Lab
Bhanu Palagati Database Tech Feb. 2022 – May. 2022
Tracy Ouncap Technician Mar. 2021 – Jun. 2022 Student, Santa Fe College
Pedro Lopez Technician Jun. 2022 – Dec. 2022 Lab tech, University of Georgia
Yu Fang Master’s Student Aug. 2021 – Jul. 2023 Ph.D. Student, Florida State University
Tianqi Li Ph.D./Postdoc Oct. 2018 – Jan. 2025 Postdoctoral Researcher, UCSD, Corina Antal Lab
Alex Carbonell Ph.D. Student Feb. 2024 – Jan. 2025 Ph.D. Student, Ramon Sun Lab, UF.
Nicholas Hiers Ph.D. Student Jan. 2021 – Jun. 2025 Postdoctoral Researcher, Yale, Anna Marie Pyle Lab
Yuzhi Wang Postdoc/Ast. Sci. Jul. 2021 – Jul. 2025
Zehui Zhang Postdoc Sep. 2024 – Sep. 2025 Microbiologist, Nivagen Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Former Undergraduate students

NAME Major Time in lab last known position
Luke Prescott Microbiology Nov. 2016 – May. 2017 ––
Vivian Tanios Biology Jun. 2017 – Aug. 2017 ––
Monica Yassa Biology Jun. 2017 – Dec. 2017 Resident Physician, Rutgers University
Bret Miller Biochemistry Jun. 2017 – Dec. 2018 Brown University Medical School, class of 2025
Emily Chong Health Education Jan. 2018 – Dec. 2018 UF College of Dentistry, class of 2024
Shafina Samraj Microbiology Jun. 2018 – May. 2019 Consenting Coordinator, UF Health
Mythili Merchant Microbiology Jan. 2019 – May. 2019 Genetic Counselor, Fred Hutch Cancer Center
Taha Huda Biochemistry Jan. 2017 – May. 2019 Hematology-Oncology Fellow, Moffitt/USF
Jimmy Tianqi Wei Biochemistry Jan. 2017 – Sept. 2019 Dental Resident, UCLA
Sneha Joseph Biochemistry Apr. 2019 – Dec. 2019 UF, Senior
Brooke Benedetto Biochemistry Apr. 2021 – Sep. 2021 Associate Bioprocess Engineer, Neurocrine Biosciences
Bhargav Kansara Microbiology Jun. 2021 – Apr. 2022 University of South Florida, Medical School, class of 2026
Maria Buzaianu Biology Jan. 2022 – May. 2023 ––
Sabrina Hernandez Microbiology Oct. 2023 – May. 2024
Mason Kuzmick Health Science Jan. 2024 – May. 2024
Jessi Effinger-Morris Biology Sep. 2021 – Aug. 2024 Clinical Lab Assistant
Kerolus Anis Biology May. 2024 – Dec. 2024 ––
Cori Holtzman Biochemistry Sep. 2024 – Dec. 2024 ––
Michael Yao Biochemistry Jul. 2022 – Feb. 2025 Ph.D. student, CMDB graduate program at Johns Hopkins
Nalani Quintana Biology Sep. 2023 – May. 2025 ––
Bianca Lederfeind Microbiology Aug. 2022 – Jun. 2025 Ph.D. student, The Ohio State University

Rotation students

Name Year Concentration Dissertation Advisor
Zuo Ding 2016 Cancer Shuang Huang
Paul Wassel 2018 Genetics & Genomics Julie Maupin
Marc McLeod 2018 Biochemistry Matt Merritt
Jacob Combs 2018 Biochemistry Rob McKenna
Savannah Weeks 2019 Biochemistry Linda Bloom
Augustine Vinson 2019 Biochemistry Ed Scott
Kimberly Paulsen 2019 Biochemistry Zhe Ma (Zhijian Qian)
Seth Hale 2020 Biochemistry Daiqing Liao
Darius Ramkhalawan 2020 Genetics Nadja Makki
Mitchell Gulkis 2021 Biochemistry Linda Bloom/Rob McKenna (Melike Caglayan)
Zachary Markovich 2022 Genetics Rui Xiao
Anastasia Chambers 2022 Biochemistry Ali Zarrinpar
Logan Bell 2022 Cell Biology Lien Nguyen
Sebastian Guerra 2022 Genetics & Genomics Marc Chevrette
Paul Fernandez 2023 Biochemistry Eric Wang
Kendall Long 2023 Genetics
Ibtida Ishmam 2024 Cancer Jason Butler
Veronica Perez Taboada 2024 Cell Biology Artem Nemudryi
Erin Shi 2024 Cancer Weizhou Zhang

Summer students

Name year program school
Fayha Asim 2023 SSTP North Bay Haven Academy (Panama City, FL)
Anastasia Hunt 2024 BMID UC Berkeley
Soren Ghorai 2024 SSTP Eastside Preparatory School (Seattle, WA)
Ayona Bagui 2025 SSTP Strawberry Crest High School (Dover, FL)
Ricardo Stewart 2025 MSRP UF COM Class of 2028