ccuellar-gempeler
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Meet the team

Catalina Cuellar-Gempeler, PhD.
Principal investigator

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​I am  microbial ecologist interested in metacommunity ecology with a special focus on host-associated microbial communities. I was born in Bogotá, in Colombia, and grew up in between the city and my grandpa's coffee farm in the little town of Sasaima. I moved to the US to go to graduate school with the goal of studying the ecology of microbes associated with animals and plants. Microbes and ecology have continued to capture my curiosity and imagination! I moved to Humboldt in 2018 and made a home with my little family that includes 2 humans, 2 cats and many microbes. .

CGlab Staff

​Travis Nickols

Travis has returned to the lab to help with molecular work and plant tissue culture. 

Graduate Students

Victoria Cifelli

Victoria completed her BSc at HSU and decided to join the team to look into the role of microbial communities in mediating disease. She has been exploring viral pathogens on Oysters as a system and is looking forward to start sampling. 

Parker Lund

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Parker has a BSc in marine biology and previously worked in plant pathogen testing. They are broadly interested in microbiomes, host-microbe interactions, symbiosis, and pathogens in marine systems. Their master's research focuses on characterizing the anemone microbiome and investigating the impacts of environmental stress on community composition. Outside of the lab, Parker enjoys hiking with their dog, photographing bacteria colonies, and playing video games.

Jonas Sotingco

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Jonas started his Master’s in Fall 2020. He is interested in microbial/plant interactions and their results on plant growth. His pastimes include hiking, cross-country road trips, and TV/movie analysis

Megan Teigen

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Megan started her Master’s in Fall 2020. She is interested in the chemical interactions of microbial communities and their hosts and is developing a project to better understand how microbes impact prey degradation and nutrient acquisition. In her free time she likes to go for long trail runs and collect pictures of interesting looking plants and fungi from her outdoor adventures.

Sandrine Grandmont-Lemire (Thompson)

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Sandrine started her Master's in the Fall 2020, She is interested in spatial and temporal changes in microbial community diversity and function and is developing a project to better understand drivers of nitrogen cycling. She spends her days at the Arcata Marsh and playing with her puppy, and goats, and rats, ...

Undergraduate Students

​Taylor Krilanovich

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Taylor is doing her honors thesis in the CGlab, focusing on regulatory pathways in microbial function. 

Opportunities

We are looking for graduate and undergraduate students to join our team!

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Your name could be featured here!
I am looking for motivated Undergraduate students interested in conducting a Senior Thesis (BIOL490) or Directed Study (BIOL499). 
I am also looking for Graduate students to begin in the Fall. Click on the links for details.

Alumni

Shay Konradsdottir, Eli Allen and Pamela Figueroa (2020) - Worked on developing code to launch python programming, metagenomic analyses and applications to zebrafish microbiome dynamics. 
Robyn Botch (2020) -with Sandrine: review the literature regarding microbial organisms in marsh habitats. 
Brooke Roehrick , Breana Vincent and Esmeralda Villarreal (2020): trait trade off and bacterial population growth experiments.
Megan Williford (2020): pitcher plant tissue culture project. 
Eric Malekos (2019-2020): bioinformatic tools
A. H. Huebner (2019-2020): mycorrhizae in the roots of ​Astragalus applegatei
José Alejandro Bravo, Dan Perez-Sornia, Erik Malekos and Marissa Monaco: Degradation experiment 2019, isolation of pitcher plant bacteria
Luisa Segovia (2019): coding tutorials, DNA extractions, anemone microbial community, mycorrhizae.
Travis Nickols (2019):  pitcher plant tissue culture project, anemone microbial community -DNA extractions. 
Kekoa Blaisdell (2018-2019): Banana slug microbiome
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  • Home
  • Research
  • Publications
  • Teaching
  • People
  • Contact and opportunities