People
Michael S. Werner
Principal Investigator
Education and work experience:
Post-doc: The Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology; Department of Integrative Evolutionary Biology (Tübingen, Germany)
PhD: Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, The University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
B.S.: Molecular Biology, Minor in Chemistry: Stetson University (DeLand, FL)
email: michael.werner@utah.edu
Julie Jung
Postdoc
Education and work experience:
PhD: Biology, Boston University
M.S.: Biology, Boston University
B.S.: Biology & Environmental Science (Honors), Williams College (Williamstown MA)
email: julie.jung@utah.edu
Publications:
Warkentin K.M., J. Jung, J.G. McDaniel. 2021. “Research approaches in mechanosensory-cued hatching and the iterative development of playback methods for red-eyed treefrog embryos.” Chapter 8, in: P.S.M. Hill, V. Mazzoni, N. Stritih Peljhan, M. Virant-Doberlet, A. Wessel (Eds.). Animal Signals and Communication (series). Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp xx-xx (in press).
Jung J., S.J. Serrano-Rojasu, K.M. Warkentin. 2020. “Multimodal mechanosensing for escapehatching decisions of red-eyed treefrogs.” Journal of Experimental Biology.
* Media coverage in Inside JEB. Cover image for Volume 223, Issue 24.
Jung J., S.J. Kimu, S.P. Ariasu, J.G. McDaniel, K.M.Warkentin. 2019. “How do red-eyed treefrog embryos detect snake attacks? Assessing the role of vestibular mechanoreception.” Journal of Experimental Biology. Full text.
*Media coverage in Inside JEB. Short list for JEB’s 2019 Outstanding Paper Prize.
Warkentin K.M., J. Jung, L.A. Rueda Solano, J.G. McDaniel. 2019. “Ontogeny of escapehatching decisions: discrimination among vibrational cues changes developmentally as predicted from costs of sampling and false alarms.” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 73:51.
Warkentin K.M., J. Cuccaro-Diazu, B.A. Guell, J. Jung, S.J. Kimu, K.L. Cohen. 2017. “Developmental onset of the escape-hatching response in red-eyed treefrogs depends on cue type.” Animal Behaviour. 129:103-112.
Shelley Reich
PhD candidate
Education and work experience:
M.S.: Biology, Walla Walla University (Walla Walla, WA)
B.S.: Biology, Andrews University (Berrien Springs, MI)
*J.N. Andrews Honors Scholar, summa cum laude
Project Coordinator: North Fork John Day Watershed Council
email: shelley.reich@utah.edu
Publications:
Werner, M.S., Loschko, T., King, Reich, S., et al. Histone 4 lysine 5/12 acetylation enables developmental plasticity of Pristionchus mouth form. Nat Commun 14, 2095 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37734-z
Cooper, J. C., Lukacs, A., Reich, S., Schauer, T., Imhof, A., Phadnis, N., & Larracuente, A. M. (2019). Altered Localization of Hybrid Incompatibility Proteins in Drosophila. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 36(8), 1783–1792.
Thomas King
PhD candidate
Education and work experience:
Lab technician at the University of Utah in Nitin Phadnis's lab, School of Biological Sciences
B.A.: Biochemistry (Honors) & English, magna cum laude, Bowdoin College (Brunswick, ME)
email: thomas.king@utah.edu
Publications:
Werner, M.S., Loschko, T., King, Reich, S., et al. Histone 4 lysine 5/12 acetylation enables developmental plasticity of Pristionchus mouth form. Nat Commun 14, 2095 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37734-z
King TD, Leonard CJ, Cooper JC, Nguyen S, Joyce EF, Phadnis N. (2019) Recurrent losses and rapid evolution of the condensin II complex in insects. Molecular Biology and Evolution 36(10) 2195-2204.
King TD, Johnson JE, Bateman JR. (2019) Position effects influence transvection in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 213(4) 1289-1299. (Highlighted in Genetics Spotlight 2019)
Audrey Brown
PhD candidate
Education and work experience:
H.B.S. in Biology, minor in Mathematics, Magna Cum Laude, University of Utah
Mentor and curriculum development for the ACCESS Scholars program
REU project award, Department of Mathematics, University of Utah, 2018
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Scholar award (UROP), University of Utah
AChemS Award for Undergraduate Research, Association for Chemoreception Sciences, 2020.
email: audrey.brown@utah.edu
Publications:
Burton S.D., Brown A., Eiting T.P., Youngstrom I.A., Rust T.C., Schmuker M., Wachowiak M. 2022. Mapping odorant sensitivities reveals a sparse but structured representation of olfactory chemical space by sensory input to the mouse olfactory bulb. eLife, 2022; 11:e80470.
Madelyn Purnell
PhD candidate
Education and work experience:
BS: Bioinformatics (Honors), Brigham Young University, Minor in Computer Science
email: madelyn.purnell@utah.edu
Publications:
Purnell, Madelyn G., et al. "Complete Genome Sequences of Five SO-1-Like Siphoviridae Bacteriophages That Infect Enterobacteriales." Microbiology Resource Announcements 11.4 (2022): e01224-21.
Purnell, Madelyn. "Sequencing the Guts out of COVID-19; The Evolution Behind the COVID-19 Pandemic." (2022).
Samantha (Sam) Nestel
Undergraduate
University of Utah - Honors program
ACCESS student: Spring 2021
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP): Spring 2022
Benjamin Natividad
Undergraduate
University of Utah
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP): Spring 2021, Spring 2022
Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Club
University of Utah Model United Nations
Laika
Education and work experience:
Chicago Canine Academy (Chicago, IL)
Accomplishments: listed 'first dog in space'
Lab Alumni
Tobias Loschko; Current position: Technician at the Max Planck Institute of Biology (Tübingen, Germany)
Hannah F. Lee; Current position: Pharmacy School, University of Utah