Thanks to the National Science Foundation for the support of students through the Research for Undergraduates (REU) program. [This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under several grants. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.] (send an e-mail if you are interested in doing research on fungi) 
Undergraduate research students in mycology at LSU (see also, Current undergraduate researchers)
See the quiz, "Are you PLANT-wise?"
Undergraduate students are essential to the smooth functioning of the lab, and a number of them have become valued junior colleagues.  The relationship truly is symbiotic, and the opportunity to do research that may result in publication insures that the student stands out, whether beginning a job directly after a bachelor's degree or pursuing an advanced degree. It doesn't hurt to learn all the techniques either! 
Emeritus undergraduate researchers (alphabetically)

Above, left. Continuous line drawing by Kevin M. Robertson about 1992.
Christine working with the big data base
 Christine Ackerman  from Slidell, Louisiana, majored in biology .  She  joined the lab as a junior and learned a variety of techniques to help with the yeast research.  She specialized in photography, using the digital system in the Socolosky Microscopy Facility to capture images of the yeasts from cultures.

Major: Biological Sciences
BS degree: Spring 2003
 
Louisa


Louisa was in the lab for the 2008-2009 academic year. She came from the University of Bath, United Kingdom, to do her placement year learning techniques that we use in the study of yeasts. Bath has an interesting history as a Roman city with many ruins. One of the people buried in the Abby there is Thomas Robert Malthus, the political economist who influenced Darwin. Louisa quickly learned PCR and DNA sequencing reactions, assimilation and other physiological tests. She was invaluable in working up the frozen yeast cultures. She also learning about the American culture her father and his family experienced when they spent a number of years in Austin, Texas, several decades ago.
Alex
Alex hails from the city of Kenner, about nine miles from New Orleans, and lived there for most of his life until Hurricane Katrina. After receiving his diploma from Brother Martin High School in New Orleans, Alex chose to attend LSU to pursue a degree in biology and possibly a minor in chemistry. He graduated in Spring 2009, and he plans to become a physician in the field of endocrinology. On a more personal note he is happy to be an uncle/godfather to his only brother's first child. Alex enjoys hanging out with his friends, playing a little tennis when he can, and watching his fish swim in his saltwater aquarium. He began working in the mycology lab Spring 2008 where he has learned a number of molecular techniques, including PCR and DNA sequencing. He is also adept at culturing fungi. Congratulations on graduation from all the lab!

 LaToya and Ning Zhang
 LaToya Barber from Las Vegas, Nevada, worked in the lab when she was a Junior Biology major from Xavier University of Louisiana. LaToya had plans to persue a Ph.D program in immunology or attend medical school. LaToya was at LSU as part of the LAMP program in the summer of 2001. In her first research experience LaToya worked with Ning Zhang on a project investigating the link between population genetics of Discula destructiva and its pathogenicity to dogwood trees. LaToya is helping Ning collect data on the extent of the infection cause by each different strain. As a newly elected MARC Scholar at Xavier University, in Fall 2001 LaToya began a research project with Dr. Mark Schleuter. We wish she'd stayed longer because she really worked hard! The last we heard was that LaToya had a choice of several medical schools that she could attend.

Major: Biology (Xavier University)
BS, Spring 2004

Poster presentations:

  • Investigation on the pathogenicity of dogwood anthracnose fungus.  Summer Undergraduate Research Forum, LSU, Baton Rouge, July 2001 (with Ning Zhang and Meredith Blackwell).
  • Population Genetics of Dogwood Anthracnose Fungus (Discula destructiva Redlin). MSA, Salt Lake City, Utah, August-September 2001 (with N. Zhang and M. Blackwell) Abstract:  Dogwood anthracnose caused by Discula destructiva affects several native dogwood species in North America (Cornus florida in the east and C. nuttallii in the west). Since the first reports of the disease in the 1970s, infections have spread to British Columbia and over twenty states in the U.S. The fungus was believed clonal; however, our studies using DNA fingerprinting by amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs), sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), and pathogenicity tests detected variation in the D. destructiva populations. Twenty genotypes were identified among 72 isolates from both western and eastern United States. Analysis using distance methods separated the western from the eastern isolates. Seventeen genotypes were detected among eastern isolates, but only three from the west, indicting that the eastern populations may be more diverse. Among 11 isolates collected in 1999 from an area of approximately ten square kilometers in Catoctin Mountain Park, Maryland, we found eight different genotypes. Compared to collections made at the same locality in 1990, the diversity has not changed significantly. Therefore, although a few clones have spread widely and are dominant in certain populations, the fungus has retained its overall variability.
Katie Brillhart
Katie, a biological sciences major from Lafayette, Louisiana, began woring in the lab as a sophmore paid by Chancellor's research support in the fall of 2002.  She helped to write the descriptions of 300 isolates of yeasts for our Internet data base.  Katie's plans include pharmacy school and working as a pharmacist in a hospital after that.

Major: Biological Sciences
BS expected Spring 2005
Ann Buckalew
Ann was a zoology major who graduated from LSU with honors.  After helping us acquire data in the laboratory on several different projects for three years, she left to begin medical school at the Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans, May 1997.  She also was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa that year. Ann was supported by an NSF-REU supplement.
Geetha Chockalingam worked in the spring and fall of 2000. She studied endosymbiotic yeasts with Dr. Sung-Oui Suh, supported by funding from an NSF-REU supplement and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant. Major: Microbiology/ISDS
  • Poster presentation: Beetles and their yeast endosymbionts from basidiocarp habitats.  Summer Undergraduate Research Forum, LSU, Baton Rouge, July 2000 (with Sung-Oui Suh and Meredith Blackwell).
Christina Dang

Christina (2003-2004) worked in the lab helping with culture of the yeasts and molecular work. In the summer of 2004 she participated in a research program at Loyola in New Orleans.
She completed her BS in Spring 2007, and will begin medical school in the fall at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.
Doan Dang
Doan worked on several projects in the lab (1999-2001), including discovering yeasts on the surface of and in the gut of beetles. She and Rebecca Sweany (see below) surveyed large numbers of cultures each day to evaluate their success. Doan went to pharmacy school at Xavier University in New Orleans in fall 2001. 

Cathy Dugas DeRobertis
Cathy was the first student worker ever in the mycology lab.  A botany major, she graduated with honors (1985, left) and went to graduate school at the University of California at Riverside (MS 1987). From there she went to work in industry.  One of the projects that she did at LSU was to map wood-decaying fungi on the trees of the LSU campus; she also determined the number of mating genes present in one of the species common on living live oaks in the oak grove (n=39 --only one repeat!).  One species she found in late autumn is a basidiomycete common on campus live oaks (Inonotus dryadeus).  In a flash photograph on the lab web site home page you can see a slug on the basidiocarp;  slugs come out only at night.  See the statement by Cathy at the top of this page.  Cathy was supported by a USDA Cooperative Agreement to isolate mycotoxigenic fungi from differet varieties of Zea mays grown around the world. Photograph at right, taken in 2002. Cathy is employed as a researcher in the Department of Plant Pathology at LSU.

 
John Dugas
John was the second student worker ever in the mycology lab after being recruited by his sister Cathy, who became jefe to him as he worked hard to perfect his Spanish.   Yes, the lab is good training for the many who go on to graduate school in any field. John obtained a PhD from Indiana University --but in Political Science. He has taught courses in International Relations and Latin American Politics in the Political Science Department at Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan since the fall of 1995. 

John wrote, "I'm glad I'm still remembered there, even if my most memorable moment in the department was breaking five 4 liter flasks simultaneaously!" 
Elizabeth Ellent

Elizabeth, a Biological Sciences major, graduated from Isidore Newman School in 2005.She worked  in the lab during the 2005-2006 academic year testing specific primers on a species of yeast specific to a particular beetle throughout the eastern USA. After graduation, Elizabeth hopes to attend medical school and study either psychiatry or dermatology.
Cennet Erbil
Cennet  began her education at LSU in the fall of 2001. She earned a Chancellor's Leadership Scholarship Award and is pursuing a major in Biological Science. She is interested in both vocal and instrumental (French horn and piano) music. Cennet became a part of the research team in the fall of 2002. She has learned all the lab techniques, and is helping to edit the yeast photomicrographs for our growing Internet database. She has completed her first year of medical school (Spring 2006).

Publication:
Nguyen, N. H., S.-O. Suh, C. K. Erbil, and M. Blackwell. Metschnikowia noctiluminum sp. nov., Metschnikowia corniflorae sp. nov., and Candida chrysomelidarum sp. nov., isolated from green lacewings and beetles. Mycological Research in press.

Major: Biological Sciences
Year:  BS  Spring 2005
Jessica Farrar
Jessica graduated in biology in Spring 2005. She  was  supported by NSF REU funds during the summer of 2001; but, alas, fungal spores made Jessica sneeze. We miss her! Maybe she will be an allergist after she completes medical school. 

Major: BS in Biological Sciences (2005)
Daniel A. Henk has his own page
Huei-Yang Ho, MS 2008


Yang helped on our FISH project to identify the bacteria that form surface films on part of the gut of a wood-ingesting beetle. He got a master's degree in entomology in Spring 2008 with a project on gut bacteria of another wood-ingesting insect, the Formosan termite introduced to Louisiana decades ago. This prepared him for the beetle research. He plans to work on a PhD beginning Fall 2009.
Dustin Jackson, BS 2008

We first got to know Dustin as the guy from the computer lab who knew about Macs. Then we discovered he was a very knowledgeable biology major who knew how to culture microbes. We quickly enlisted him after his graduation in Spring 2008 -Spring 2009 to help us with the yeast assimilation studies, and continued to rely on him to fine tune our computers! On rare occasions he was the Happy Dishwasher.

La Donna Jarrell
La Donna transferred to LSU from the University of South Florida because she wanted to major in botany.  In addition to her interest in plant systematics, La Donna became interested in mycology.  She helped in the study of Pyxidiophora isolates, and presented a poster in a summer research program for undergraduates at LSU.  La Donna moved to Orlando after she completed her degree in 1996, where she worked at the Land at the Epcot Center in plant pathology for a year and a half.  She has taken a number of computer courses, and she plans to continue her studies in computer science at the University of Central Florida. This year she is a teaching assistant in a junior level computer science course and also is a special event manager for Disney's Wide World of Sports. Next year she should be able to enter graduate school full time. See La Donna's statement above.  La Donna was supported by an NSF-REU supplement and Howard Hughes Medical Institute funding. 

Major: BS in Botany (1996)

Poster presentation:

L. Jarrell, K. G. Jones, and M. Blackwell.  Patterns of evolution in ambrosia fungi. Summer Undergraduate Research Forum, LSU, August 1995.
Hester Johnson
     

    Hester Johnson SoFranko, 3 April 2004, Red Stick Farmer's 
    Market. Photograph Mary Campbell.

    Hester alternated doing research in mycology and ecology during her undergraduate days at LSU.  After working for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Hester went back to LSU, where she received a master's degree in Experimental Statistics.  Plans to work for a PhD at Tulane University were dashed by Hurricane Katrina. She was supported by an NSF-REU supplement. 

    Poster presentation:
    H. Johnson, B. Sawyer, K. Jones, D. Malloch, and M. Blackwell.  Evolution of conidium types in Pyxidiophora. Fifth International Mycological Congress, Vancouver, British Columbia, August 1994.
Aurash Khoobehi
Aurash, a biology major from Metarie, Louisiana, began work in the lab in the late fall semester of 2004 and worked until Spring 2006, when bhe received his BS degree. He will attend medical school in Fall 2008. Aurash was helpful in transfering cultures and performing PCR reactions.
Jonathan Lo, BS Spring 2008
Jonathan
Jonathan graduated from Episcopal High School, Baton Rouge, in 2004. He received the Chancellor’s Alumni Scholarship, the highest scholarship given to incoming students at LSU. He began work in the lab in Summer 2005, where he continued for the rest of his undergraduate career. He was great at doing physiological tests of yeasts! He often worked late nights and weekends because he had such a heavy schedule that included writing for the campus newspaper, the Daily Reville. Jonathan considered lots of options for his time after graduation --graduate school, medical school, and/or military service? Or would it be news reporter? In the end after five graduate school interviews, he chose Dartmouth for a PhD program.
Shyue Lu, BS Spring 2008

Shyue graduated from Louisiana School for Math Science and the Arts in May of 2004, and for a while she was part of the LA-STEM Research Scholars program which puts a strong emphasis on the importance of research. She joined the lab as a 3rd year biology major and worked until her graduation in Spring 2008. Shyue will participate in the Teach for America program and plans to be in Houston for the next few years in this program. After that experience she plans to attend graduate school to earn a Ph.D.

In the mycology lab Shyue studied yeasts associated with mushroom-feeding beetles, and presented a poster "Why so many yeasts? Isolation, isolation, isolation: Fungi, beetle guts, asexual reproduction & killer factors" at the LSU Summer Undergraduate Research Forum in 2007.

Shyue also gained valuable research experience in the summer of 2006 at the University of Wisconsin, where she screened invertebrate animals for antibiotic -producing gut bacteria. Shyue's abstract (see below) on her summer research was accepted for a poster presentation at the ABRCMS conference in November (http://www.abrcms.org/page05b.html). Is she really about to wash dishes?

Shyue Lu, Karen Cloud-Hansen, and Jo Handelsman. 2006. Abstract. Antibiotic Resistance in Gypsy Moth Gut Isolates. ABRCMS Conference, Anaheim, California. 8-11 November 2006. Abstract --The appearance of antibiotic resistance in clinically significant bacteria, which appeared as early as the 1940’s, has had daunting consequences. It is uncertain how bacteria have evolved resistance mechanisms so rapidly in response to the use of antibiotics. A few microbial communities in the guts of insects that provide unusual environments have been studied and have shown high levels of antibiotic resistance. The gut of the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.) larvae provides an unusual environment due to the gypsy moth diet; the generalist’s diet includes plants with allelochemicals that can be toxic to microbes. Despite the toxicity, microorganisms colonize the gypsy moth larval gut since these microorganisms have developed mechanisms to survive in the harsh conditions in the gut. Perhaps, it is these already present mechanisms that become useful in antibiotic resistance. We are interested in studying the possibility of a causal relationship between toxin survival mechanisms and resistance to antibiotics in bacteria isolated from the gut of the gypsy moth larvae. We tested two groups of culturable isolates; the bacteria isolated from gypsy moths reared in the laboratory for several generations were compared to bacterial isolates from gypsy moth larvae collected in the wild. Each of these isolates was tested in minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assays against 12 antibiotics of various classes. Partial 16S rRNA sequencing was run in order to identify the wild isolates. The preliminary data does suggest that there is no significant difference between lab domesticated larvae and wild larvae in special variety as well as MIC values. However, we cannot definitively attribute any antibiotic resistance phenotypes to environmental stress in the larval gut, pending more accurate 16S rRNA sequence data and a genetic basis for resistance. While determining the antibiotic resistance of gypsy moth larval gut isolates is only the first step in studies of the gut environmental stress survival mechanistic overlap with high antibiotic resistance, it will allow further study into elucidating the mechanisms against antibiotic resistance in bacterial communities that have not been exposed to high concentrations of antibiotics.

Nhu H. Nguyen -- Gone to Berkeley where he has his own page
 
Nhu began his LSU career Fall 2001, and started working in the lab in the spring semester (2002).  Nhu had already been collecting and raising insects for several years, so he had valuable skills to contribute to the lab from the beginning.  His interests in this area are reflected in his personal web site (see an example to the right).  He has learned to do all the culture and molecular techniques, including cloning used in the study, and he identifies insects too.  He has been invaluable in the lab and in two expeditions to Panama. Major Biological Sciences;  BS December 2005. Nhu is in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an NSF Predoctoral Fellow.

Refereed publications:
Book chapter:
 Other publication:
 Presentation:
Awards:
nhu award
Helen Peebles
Helen worked in the lab during the fall of 1999.  A Plant Biology major with several young children, Helen is completed her last year as an undergraduate and went on to graduate school in Landscape Architecture.  She helped Dr. Sung-Oui Suh in his study of endosymbiotic yeasts of beetles.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Paul Radford (d. 1985)
Paul is the only student who ever walked into the departmental office and asked to major in mycology as an undergraduate.  Since that major was not available to him, he chose botany and worked in the mycology lab.  Paul was a natural researcher and quickly learned the chromatography and spectroscopy techniques necessary for determination of glycine betaine in the fruiting bodies of fungi.  Paul's death was a great personal loss to those with whom he worked closely with him. His independent thinking, natural apptitude for research, and enthusiasm was lost to mycology.

Presentation:
M. Blackwell, A. J. Kinney, P. T. Radford, C. M. Dugas, and R. L. Gilbertson.  The chemical basis of Melzer's reaction. MSA, Gainesville, Florida, August 1985
Claire Reuter, BS Spring 2008
Claire graduated from St. Mary’s Dominican High School, New Orleans, in 2004.  She finished a degree in biochemistry at LSU in Spring 2008.  She began work in the lab during the Fall 2006 semester, and wrote an Upper Division Honors thesis on "Xylose-fermenting yeast species found in the wood of southeast Louisiana."

Abstract. Passalid beetles (Odontotaenius disjuntus) have a close relationship with a wide variety of gut microbes, including the yeast Pichia stipitis (Saccharomycotina).  The beetle excavates galleries within wood, and uses the wood as a habitat and its sole nutritional resource in all stages of the life cycle. Pichia stipitis has been found to ferment and assimilate xylose in culture. Xylose fermentation is a rare trait among yeasts, but previous work has shown that most xylose-fermenting yeasts are commonly associated with wood-ingesting beetles. This study was undertaken to determine if yeasts were present in wood of several plant species (Quercus nigra, Quercus virginiana, and Carya illinoinensis) in the absence and presence of the beetles in order to determine if beetles acquire the yeast from the wood. Significant findings were 1) xylose-fermenting yeasts were usually absent in wood without galleries; 2) 26 yeast genotypes were present among the 29 strains isolated from wood; 3) of the 3 repeat sequences one genotype was found at different localities in different wood; 4) four strains may represent new species; 5) 7 of 11 genotypes from galleries were Pichia stipitis; 3 of 14 genotypes isolated from wood without beetles fermented xylose and are likely undescribed species.

Claire was active in a number of societies and extra-curricular activities on campus. She was chosen to be a member of the "Tiger Twelve Class of 2008," a group of exceptional undergraduates who contributed positively to campus and community life. She also served as a counselor at Camp Summer Tribe, a camp for cerebral palsy children.  Claire has joined the Teach for America program and will be in New Orleans for the next two academic years. She plans to attend medical school after her teaching experience.
Patscianna Ricks
Patty Patty Ricks graduated from Baton Rouge Magnet High School in 2004. In the summer after her sophmore year Patty was an NSF REU student researcher. She planed to attend medical school in order to pursue a career in neurology after she graduates in biochemistry. In her spare time Patty enjoyed reading novels and listening to music.
Kevin Robertson (PhD, Illinois, 2001)
Kevin was really a plant ecologist, who became interested in research on fungi in his introductory botany course.  His research involved surveying species of the fungus Rickia (seen above as several white tendrils attached to the rear of a beetle).  He continued work on the project during several semesters.  Kevin completed a PhD in ecology at the University of Illinois with Carol Augspurger in the spring of 2001.  Kevin was supported by an NSF-REU supplement at LSU.
Presentation:
K. M. Robertson and M. Blackwell.  Laboulbeniales associated with phoretic mites of dung beetles.  Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon, August 1992.

Major: Botany (May 1992)
Frost Rollins   Evolution of asexual ascomycetes associated with beetles, myxomycete ecology    Frost was a long term researcher in the lab, and began her research project on beetle-dispersed fungi in 1998.  Frost was supported by NSF-REU supplements.  In the fall of 2001 Frost entered graduate school at Auburn University in horticulture and larter switched to Community Planning. Frost and India moved to Chapel Hill, NC, in spring 2006, where Frost is an urban planner for the town of Chapel Hill, and India roams the dog friendly community.

LSU Major: Plant Biology  (May 2001)
 
 Publication:
  • Rollins, F., K. G. Jones, P. Krokene, H. Solheim, and M. Blackwell.  2001. Phylogeny of asexual fungi associated with bark and ambrosia beetles. Mycologia 93:991-996. 
 Poster presentations: 
  • Fungi associated with bark and ambrosia beetles diverge. Summer Undergraduate Research Forum, LSU, Baton Rouge, July 2000 (with Kevin Jones and Meredith Blackwell).
  • Size variation in 18s rDNA fragments amplified from myxomycetes. Mid-Atlantic Mycology meeting, Duke University, Durham, April 2000 (with Kevin Jones). 
    • [Abstract. The recalcitrance of many myxomycetes to axenic culture makes field-collected sporocarps a desirable source of material for any broad phylogenetic study. Concomitantly, this approach raises problems of DNA contamination from other organisms; myxomycete fruiting bodies are known to support a rich fungal flora. The primer pairs used in this study would be expected to discriminate fungal- and myxomycete- derived 18S rDNA products. SM101/NS4 clearly will amplify ribosomal sequences from both groups of organisms, while, concordant with its original purpose, NS17 appears to identify the ascomycete-derived fragments present in SM101/NS4 amplifications. This provides a useful differential screening method to identify putative myxomycete rDNA fragments; we are presently cloning such fragments to further elucidate their origin. This approach may allow the development of myxomycete-specific PCR primers. The data obtained in this study suggest the existence of size variation in myxomycete rDNAs. The unusually large PCR product obtained from Fuligo is consistent with the presence of a group I intron, as is known in other Physarales. However, we cannot presently rule out the possibility that the absence of this fragment in NS17/NS4 amplifications reflects a fungal insert at the NS17 priming site. Minor size variation and mutiple PCR products have been reported previously from amplifications of myxomycete DNA. Although the starting material for DNA extraction was not specified, these data too may reflect co-amplification of fungal DNA.]
David Rush
David David is a Biological Sciences major from Oakdale, who started at LSU in fall 2003.  He began working in the lab in June 2005 and worked for a year. After that he decided to concentrate on excelling on the MCAT and working on courses.  
Brandye Sawyer (see her statement about the benefits of undergraduate research above)
Before automated sequencers were available, there was Brandye, who produced the best sequencing gels in the lab.  She spent a lot of her research time studying the ascomycete genus, Pyxidiophora (shown above left on moose dung).  Now we hear that she gets incredibly long runs on the automated sequencer in the Department of Animal Science at LSU where she works.  In addition to a full time job and raising her children, Brandye also is enrolled in graduate school. Brandye was supported by an NSF-REU supplement while she was an undergraduate student.  B. S. in Botany (1992)
Poster presentations:
  • B. E. Sawyer, J. W. Spatafora, and M. Blackwell.  Analysis of Pyxidiophora spp. using rDNA sequences.  Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon, August 1992. 
  • H. Johnson, B.  E. Sawyer, K. Jones, D. Malloch, and M. Blackwell.  Evolution of conidium types in Pyxidiophora.  Fifth International Mycological Congress, Vancouver, British Columbia, August 1994.
Richard Sisson was a Biological Sciences major from Calhoun, Louisiana, near Monroe in north-eastern Louisiana.  Supported by an LSU "Top 100 Scholarship" and chosen for the Chancellor's Future Leaders in Research program, he began his career at LSU in Fall 2001 as a Biological Sciences major. Alas, Richard decided over the winter vacation to become a theater major. It's a small state: Richard's parents have shopped at  Spat's Pharmacy in Monroe, Louisiana.  Spat's is the pharmacy established by Joey Spatafora's father. 

Major: Biological Sciences to Theater!
Stacey L. Soileau
Stacey helped to show that Discula destructiva, the causal agent of dogwood anthracnose, does not have different vegetative compatibility groups in North America.  Working with Ning Zhang, Stacey paired isolates from the eastern United States and the western United States among themselves and with each other to determine if a zone of interaction could be detected at the meeting of the different mycelia.  Stacey also isolated fungi from spiders in a summer project in collaboration with  Todd Bukowski and Terry Christensen. She was supported by an NSF-REU award and an LSU "Top 100 Scholarship."  Stacey was one of fifty students chosen to receive Chancellor's research support upon coming to LSU during her time in the lab (Fall 2000-Fall 2001). 

Major: Biological Sciences
Melissa Spera, a biology major from the New Orleans area, began work in the lab in  January 2005. She did not work for very long, but Melissa quickly learned many techniques and in her  short stay she helped us out a lot. On the side she served as 2005 Queen of Thoth and brought us close to the real New Orleans Mardi Gras! BS Spring 2005. Melissa attended graduate school in parmacology at Tulane University beginning in the fall of 2005. Despite delays because of Hurricane Katrina, she completed an MS degree in Fall 2006.


Ebony Spikes began research in the lab in Spring 2000.  She produced a literature survey and analysis of species of Achlya, and she continued in the lab by working on yeasts from the gut of beetles that eat basidiocarp tissues.  Ebony provided data on carbon and nitrogen utilization patterns of these fungi, the topic of her honor's thesis. She was supported by NSF-REU supplements and the LSU "Top 100 Scholarship." In Summer 2001 she had support from LAMP. Ebony spent the summer of 2000 at the Harvard School of Public Health doing research that culminated in a local research presentation ("Development of a gene expression system in the protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia"). Ebony received special recognition at LSU when she was chosen outstanding junior in the Honors College and in addition won the Honor's College Sternberg Award. Ebony has been choosen as a Goldwater Scholar for 2001-2002 and Outstanding Junior at LSU.  Ebony attended Oxford University and the London School of Hygene on her British Marshall Scholarship and received a master's degree in Spring 2006. Next? --she plans to attend medical school.

Biochemistry (BS Spring, 2002)
Team work: Rebecca Sweany and Doan Dang (see above)
Rebecca Sweany  began a project in the lab working with Doan Dang to evaluate the potential of several different projects upon which they might continue research.  For example, they have looked for yeasts reported by a colleague in root nodules of clover. Thus far, in addition to lots of Rhizobium, they have discovered cyst knot nematodes in one clover population on the campus and an apparent fungal root parasite --but no yeasts. Currently, Rebecca is working on the beetle yeast project, and she surveys large numbers of cultures each day to evaluate their growth. Doan left us for pharmacy school in fall 2001. Rebecca returned after a summer of working as a volunteer at a nature center in New Orleans and a trip to Africa. Rebecca has been supported by NSF REU funding. Rebecca is employed as a researcher in the Department of Plant Pathology at LSU.

Natural Resources (BS degree, Spring 2003)
Philly Tsaraboulidou
Philly, a botany student from Thassaloniki, Greece, had the longest tenure (four and a half years) of any undergraduate in the laboratory.  She graduated in 1990 and went to the plant pathology institute in Cypress, where she completed a master's degree in plant pathology.  Philly was supported by an NSF-REU supplement at LSU.  We wish Philly would contact us so we can know that she prospers!

BS degree (Botany 1990)

Amy Whittington
Amy came to the lab for the summer 2002 from Dr. Amy Grooters's lab in the vet school where she had worked in a study of oomycete parasites of dogs and other mammals.  We will take her back at any time.  One of  her jobs in our lab was to photograph over a hundred yeast isolates using a digital camera.  During this work she discovered ascospores in some of the passalid gut yeasts --the only sexual spores we had found in beetle gut yeats.  Amy did photography, PCR and sequencing reactions, culturing, and anything else that needed to be done. Amy entered medical school in Fall 2004 medical school.

BS degree (Microbiology, Spring 2003)
 
John Williams
John worked on the relationship between fungi and the beetles that feed on them, looking specifically at the endosymbiotic yeasts found in the gut of the beetles and in their mushroom habitats.  He graduated in December of 2001, and continued work in the lab until May 2002.  After a summer in Europe he returned to attend medical school at the LSU Medical Center in Shreveport in the fall of 2002.  In the spring of 2000, John participated in an exchange program with Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, Australia, and he was LSU's first ambassador to the country of Australia.  He was supported by NSF REU funds in the lab.

BS degree (Zoology, Fall 2001)
 
Mycology at LSU
Current undergraduate researchers
Last Modified:  1 September 2006