Cristina Prieto
Cristina Prieto is a sophomore, studying both Molecular and Cell Biology and Data Science here at Berkeley. She works with Dr. Avery Noonan particularly the work conducted in KBase and biodesign.
Jonathan Ngai
Jonathan Ngai is a senior at UC Berkeley studying Data Science and Political Science. He is working with Dr. Avery Noonan to build machine learning models for the prediction of phage-host interactions. Jonathan’s interests include deep learning, computer science, and multidisciplinary research approaches, and will apply his experience to support the objectives of the Phage Foundry.
Avery Noonan
Avery is a postdoctoral researcher in the Environmental Genomics & Systems Biology Division at LBNL. Avery completed his BSc at the University of Toronto in Genetics and Geosciences in 2015 and his PhD at the University of British Columbia in the Genome Sciences and Technology program in 2023. His doctoral research related to the development of high-throughput screening paradigms for the study of photosynthetic microorganisms, as well as the application of computational tools to investigate microbial community structure and dynamics in natural and engineered environments, including photobioreactors and the human lung. In his role in the Arkin lab, Avery is using statistical and machine learning approaches to predict phage-host interactions with the goal of selecting or engineering phages to target specific human pathogens.
Lucas Morinière
Lucas Morinière joined the Arkin Lab in April 2023 as a postdoctoral researcher in the EDGE project to work on phage-host interactions under Adam Arkin’s and Vivek Mutalik’s supervision. He completed his education at the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in France by earning his PhD in 2021 at the Microbial Ecology Lab of Lyon (UMR 5557). His thesis research was focused on the
ecology, genomics, and taxonomy of Xanthomonas hortorum pv. vitians (Xhv), the causal agent of the bacterial leaf spot of lettuce disease. As part of his research, he first conducted a thorough polyphasic taxonomical study which allowed to reshape the entire X. hortorum species. Then, he used transposon insertion sequencing (TnSeq) and comparative genomics to describe the in vitro and in planta essential genomes of this non-model plant-pathogenic bacterium. Afterwards, he pursued as a Temporary Lecturer and Research Assistant (ATER) for a year and used TnSeq to elucidate the molecular determinants of the interaction between Xhv and a new lytic phage. As part of the new NSF funded project, his present research in the Arkin Lab in collaboration with Mutalik lab focuses on uncovering the genetics of phage-host interactions by submitting large collections of Escherichia coli and coliphages to high-throughput susceptibility assays and high-throughput genetic screens (RB-TnSeq, DubSeq) based on a machine-learning-driven experimental workflow.
Phillipe Wiederkehr
Phillipe Wiederkehr, undergraduate in Bioengineering Department at UC Berkeley with a major emphasis in synthetic biology. His interest in microbiology is tailocins, which he hopes could be utilized to revolutionize medicine in the future. He is very interested in just how precise bacteria-tailocin interactions are, and how surface proteins on a cell can have counter-intuitive effects on such events. The overall complexity of viruses interests him, and he will be able to contribute to a greater understanding of their interactions with cells.
He assists with phage-related projects. He has done biological research since high school and co-authored a paper on the effects of cannabinoids on the brain that was published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine in 2019. He is also involved with Berkeley iGEM, a club focussing on synthetic and computational biology.
He assists with phage-related projects. He has done biological research since high school and co-authored a paper on the effects of cannabinoids on the brain that was published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine in 2019. He is also involved with Berkeley iGEM, a club focussing on synthetic and computational biology.
Kerem Yazgan
Kerem, undergraduate in the department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked with Drs. Arkin & Mutalik. The project a systemic approach to enrich, isolate, characterize, and engineer novel ssRNA phages that support the agricultural, environmental, and possibly health strategies.
Batu Akkas
Batu, undergraduate in the Bioengineering Dept. Batu worked with Dr. Vivek Mutalik. The project a systemic approach to enrich, isolate, characterize, and engineer novel ssRNA phages that support the agricultural, environmental, and possibly health strategies.
Nick Nolan
Nick Nolan was a Bioengineering and EECS sophomore undergraduate student in the Arkin Laboratory at UC Berkeley; his research topics were in viral engineering and control theory, though is always willing to delve into other topics of interest. As much as science is important to him, science education is equally so–thus he has organized the 2019 BioEHSC™, a Bioengineering High School Competition, the largest high school-specific competition of its kind in the world, as Junior Chair, and looks forward to serving as Senior Chair in the competition’s next annual iteration.
