Katy Heath
Professor
Department of Plant Biology, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
Teaching Professorial Scholar in Integrative Biology
Affiliate, Department of Microbiology
kheath at illinois.edu
Find Katy on Google Scholar
Check out our Infection Genomics for One Health (IGOH) theme and GEMS: our NSF-funded Biological Integration Institute
Education:
Postdoc University of Toronto
PhD University of Minnesota
BS University of Illinois
Caroline Oldstone-Jackson
Ivan Sosa Marquez
Graduate student, Microbiology
ivan3 at illinois.edu
Education:
BS and MS Biological Science, Autonomous University of Querétaro
Ivan is interested in the genetics and evolution of establishment and ongoing partner quality in Medicago truncatula and Ensifer meliloti. He is studying the population genetics of candidate genes for partner quality variation in Ensifer and validating the function of key mutations.
David Vereau Gorbitz
Graduate student, Microbiology
davidv3 at illinois.edu
Education:
BS Molecular Biology; University of California San Diego
David is working with Katy and Cari Vanderpool (UIUC Microbiology) on a project studying how symbiosis plasmid mutations at particular genes and/or entire plasmids can alter partner quality in Rhizobium in response to high nitrogen environments. His project is part of our new Biological Integration Institute (GEMS)!
Sierra Bedwell
Graduate student, Microbiology
Education: BS Microbiology; Montana State University
Sierra is working with Katy and Rachel Whitaker (UIUC Microbiology) studying plasmid-chromosome coevolution in a population of Rhizobium undergoing nitrogen deposition. She is determining whether or not the cost of carrying plasmids is affected by environmental conditions. Her project is also part of the GEMS Institute. Follow her on Twitter!
Natalie Belloso
Graduate student, Plant Biology
ericab2 at illinois.edu
Education:
BS Northeastern Illinois University
Natalie is interested to understand how ecosystem-level processes such as nitrogen cycling in soils respond to long tern nitrogen fertilization and drought/flooding, and how these complex effects influence plant-microbe interactions. She is co-advised by Katy and Wendy Yang!
Meghan Blaszynski
Research technician (graduate student in Plant Biology, Fall 2023)
meghanb3 at illinois.edu
Education:
BS U. Illinois Integrative Biology
Meghan is currently an hourly research assistant in the lab, but starts her MS in fall 2023! She is working on understanding how rhizobia benefit legumes when they are in the rhizosphere.
Amanda Griffin
Graduate student in Plant Biology, Fall 2023
alg10 at illinois.edu
Education:
BS Eckerd College Biology and Psychology, MS The Ohio State University EEOB
Amanda is part of SPI this summer and starts her PhD program this fall! She is keen to study plant-microbe interactions in agricultural systems!
Jason (Jiesheng) Zheng
Graduate student in PEEC, Fall 2023
jz140 at illinois.edu
Education:
BS Shenzhen University, MS New York University
Undergraduate Researchers:
Allison Higgins (Plant Biotechnology)
Jada Powell (Integrative Biology)
Chase Schwartz (Integrative Biology Honors)
Destiny Gonzalez (Integrative Biology)
Nur Al-Kodmany (Brain and Cognitive Science & Integrative Biology)
HEATH LAB ALUMNI
Ethan Perez (Bakersfield College & UC Davis)
Mario Cerón Romero
Postdoc
Education:
PhD Univ. Massachusetts Amherst
MS Universidad de Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras
BSc Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia
Mario is developing pipelines for studying how lateral transfer and natural selection together shape symbiotic extended phenotypes, like rhizobium partner quality. Mario is using bioinformatics and phylogenetics on our collections of hundreds of Rhizobium and Ensifer strains for this work. Check out Mario’s Google Scholar page.
Mario is now a postdoc at Case Western University!
Abdel Halloway
Postdoc
Education:
PhD University of Illinois at Chicago
BS University of Illinois at Chicago
Check out Abdel’s Google Scholar page.
Abdel is combining models and data to study how mutualism evolve in response to important changes in environmental conditions. He is uses evolutionary game theory to model eco-evolutionary dynamics at the individual, population, and community level and testing resulting hypotheses using the Pisum–Rhizobium system in a greenhouse experiment.
Abdel is now an assistant professor at Case Western University!
Patrick Kozyra (Integrative Biology)
Yoel Gros (IB)
Karla Griesbaum
M.S., Plant Biology
B.S. UIUC Natural Resources and Environmental Science
Karla is working with Katy and Natalie Christian (now at U. Louisville), studying how fungal and bacterial endophytes in soybean leaves interact with each other and the CO2 environment to alter plant growth and plant yield.
Crissy Gallick
Now at EPA in Kansas City
cgallick at illinois.edu
Education:
BS Purdue University
Crissy is interested in the interactions between plants and microbes, and between scientists and the public. She has been studying how rhizobia evolve in response to environmental change at the genomic and phenotypic levels, while also working on citizen science projects and myriad other things.
Riley Popp (MCB)
currently PhD student at Northwestern University Chicago
Rebecca Batstone
currently an Assistant Professor at McMaster University in Ontario
Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Genomic Biology
Education:
PhD Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
MSc Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN)
BSc Biology (Hons), MUN
Rebecca is interested in understanding the genetic underpinnings of how nitrogen-fixing rhizobia adapt to both the free-living (i.e., soil) and symbiotic (i.e., host) environments. While changes in standing genetic variation and de novo mutations are known to play a role, we currently do not know how acquiring genes horizontally (i.e., versus vertically via descent) influences rhizobial adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Rebecca will be using a combination of experimental evolution approaches, genetic manipulations, genomic sequencing, and bioinformatics to address this issue. Check out Rebecca’s website and Google Scholar citations.
James Kosmopoulos (IB Honors)
currently a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin Madison
Labake Oyetayo (IB)
currently interning at Rush Medical school in Chicago
Julia Paoli (Business & IB)
currently a lab tech at Harvard University in Boston
Nevers Mushimata (MCB)
currently a MS student in MCB at the University of Illinois
Alex Riley
currently a high school biology teacher at Urbana High!
Currently a MS student in Curriculum and Instruction
abriley2 at illinois.edu
Education:
BS Integrative Biology (Honors) Minors in Mathematics and Chemistry; University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Check out Alex on Twitter @AlexRiley715 or on google scholar
Laura Goralka (IB 2020)
currently in graduate school for nursing!
Matt Monk (IB 2020)
Natalie Christian
Now: Assistant Professor at University of Louisville
Previously: United States Department of Agriculture AFRI Postdoctoral Fellow
Photo by Sam Roy.
Education:
PhD Evolution Ecology and Behavior; Indiana University
BA Ecology, BA Spanish; Vanderbilt University
I am a USDA postdoctoral fellow co-advised Katy Heath and Posy Busby (Oregon State University). I am exploring how aboveground and belowground plant symbionts modify each other, and ultimately host plant defense and productivity. Specifically, I am using soybean (Glycine max), an agriculturally important legume, to study how the host’s characteristic N-fixing rhizobia bacteria interact with foliar endophytic fungi. Understanding and harnessing interactions between multiple beneficial plant symbionts could be a fruitful avenue for sustainable agriculture and represent a future direction for crop breeding programs. Check out Natalie’s website and Google Scholar page.
Hanna Lindgren
Postdoctoral researcher
Education:
PhD Plant Biology, University of Helsinki
Interests:
Plant-microbe interactions, fungal symbioses, coevolution, systematics and phylogenetics
Baldemar Basurto (Bakersfield C.)
Xinyan Xu (FAFU China)
The lab in October 2015:
Jennifer Jones
graduate student, PEEC – currently at Kellogg Biological Station at Michigan State University
interests:
fungal community genetics, nutrient cycling, mycorrhizae
education:
PhD University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
BS American University
Cassandra Allsup
Postdoctoral scholar
Mike Grillo
NSF Plant Genome postdoctoral fellow – currently at Loyola University Chicago
interests:
evolutionary genetics, plant-microbe coevolution
education:
PhD Michigan State University
Matias Fernandez
graduate student, plant biology (graduated 2018)
matias.fernandez0 at gmail.edu
interests:
historical conifer species distributions
education:
BS Columbia University
Shawn Brown
Postdoctoral fellow – currently at University of Memphis
interests:
microbes, ecology, evolution, metagenomics
education:
PhD Kansas State University
Julia Ossler
graduate student, plant biology
interests:
plant-rhizobium-AMF tripartite interactions and mutualism ecology and evolution
education:
MS Nova Southeastern University
BS Illinois College
Amber Toussaint
Haleema Ahmed
undergraduate researcher
interests:
plant-rhizobia coevolution
education:
UIUC Integrative Biology Honors
Taylor Weathers
undergraduate researcher
interests:
Epidemiology/disease ecology, plus conifers and of course rhizobia
education:
UIUC Integrative Biology
Emily Davis
undergraduate researcher
interests:
rhizobia and plant-soil feedbacks
education:
UIUC Integrative Biology Honors
Justin Podowski
undergraduate researcher
interests:
astrobiology
microbiology
bacterial genetics
education:
UIUC MCB
Horace Zeng
undergraduate researcher
interests:
conifer genetics, science communication, creative writing
education:
UIUC Crop Sciences and Ecology and Conservation Biology
currently:
PhD
Weixi Zhao
undergraduate researcher
interests:
Conifers, so far!
education:
UIUC Integrative Biology
Shoham Band
undergraduate researcher
interests:
Multi-player interactions, herbivory effects on plant colonization by AMF and rhizobia
education:
UIUC Integrative Biology
Kathryn Solórzano Lowell
graduate student, plant biology
interests:
fungal community genetics, microbe-microbe interactions
education:
BS Hampshire College
Christie Klinger
graduate student, plant biology
interests:
evolutionary genetics of nitrogen adaptation
in symbiotic rhizobia
education:
BS Dominican University
MS University of Illinois
Ben Gordon
graduate student, Plant Biology
interests:
rhizobium genetics & evolution, classical air guitar
education:
BS UIUC SESE (School of Earth Society and Environment)
MS University of Illinois
Leah Caplan
undergraduate researcher
interests:
conifer genetics, science communication, creative writing
education:
UIUC Creative Writing and Integrative Biology
Pat Burke
research associate
interests:
biophysics, genomics, & evolution
education:
PhD California Institute of Technology
Richard Hartland
undergraduate researcher
interests:
rhizobium-mycorrhizal
interactions
education:
UIUC NRES
Carissa Zielinski
undergraduate researcher
Awarded “high distinction” in Spring 2013!
interests:
evolution of mycorrhizal fungi-rhizobia interactions
education:
UIUC IB
Currently: technician in the Friesen lab at MSU!
Gavin Blyth
undergraduate researcher
interests:
Plant endophytes, symbiosis, flow cytometry, rhizobium fitness
education:
Graduated, UIUC IB Honors
Elida Iniguez
undergraduate researcher
interests:
TBA
education:
Graduated, UIUC IB
Patrick Knapik
undergraduate researcher
interests:
TBA
education:
UIUC IB Honors
David Ealy
undergraduate researcher
interests:
TBA
education:
Graduated, IB UIUC