Past news

Congratulations to Marlo! Marlo receives NSF graduate research fellowship to support their PhD and passes their qualifying exam! Marlo will pursue research on resistance to Pseudomonas syringae in tomato.

Jenn shared our tomato research at the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions Congress (IS-MPMI 2023) and the 37th Annual Tomato Disease Workshop. 

Congratulations to Marlo, who received the Grace Kase award in recognition of academic and research excellence!

Congratulations to Daniela Berman, who graduated with her B.Sc. in May! Dani majored in Microbial Biology and will be starting graduate school at UCSD.

Undergraduate student Dani Berman presented her honors research project. Dani screened cultivated and wild tomato accessions for resistance to Pseudomonas syringae. New sources of disease resistance will help protect plants from infection. 

Undergraduate student Ivan Wang was nominated for an OSKI award for Outstanding Undergraduate Student Organization! Ivan founded the Vertical Farming at Berkeley club. In vertical farming, plants are grown in controlled conditions on vertically stacked racks, allowing for a smaller footprint. The club raised funds for the project, engineered the vertical farming system and characterized the biology of the plants.

Elan Tran and Marlo Hall rotated in the lab, and Marlo joins the lab! Elan did her B.Sc. at the University of Miami. Marlo did their B.Sc. at UC San Diego. Marlo will pursue research on the interaction between Pseudomonas syringae and tomato.

Ilea is now Dr. Ilea Chau-Ly! Ilea is the first Ph.D. graduate student in the Lewis Lab! Ilea characterized effector responses in wild tomato species and tomato immune responses, and demonstrated that CRISPR-Cas3 could make large deletions in Pseudomonas syringae. She will be joining a biotechnology company in Boston.

The Lewis Lab talked about and heard about exciting science at the first in-person Plant Biology meeting since San Jose in 2019! Ilea gave a talk on tomato immune responses to Pseudomonas syringae and Nate presented a poster on the interaction between ZAR1 and kinases. Jenn was a panelist for a workshop on mentoring.

Congratulations to Kristi Yanigihara, who graduated with her B.Sc. in May! Kristi majored in Genetics & Plant Biology and will be starting work for a biotechnology company.

Nate receives an Outstanding GSI award for his work in the class "The Secret Life of Plants."

Jenn and the Lewis Lab were interviewed for the Microgreens podcast. Jenn discussed our citrus greening research, side research projects, and efforts to broaden participation in STEM. Episodes are available here: episode 1, 2, 3.

Jenn talked about the lab's research at Plant Biology 2021 and in IS-MPMI's eSymposia series. Both presentations featured work from former postdoc Dr. Karl Schreiber who identified susceptibility hubs in the host that are targeted by the pathogen to promote virulence.

Throughout the year, we have been conducting interviews with women plant pathologists to talk about their research, and their efforts to broaden science. Interviews are available here: Dr. Barbara Kunkel, Dr. Wenbo Ma, Dr. Valerie Williamson, and Dr. Kimberly Webb.

Congratulations to Ho Jung Jeong, Ani Chouldjian and Jinny Chung, who graduated with their B.Sc. degrees in May! Ho Jung and Ani majored in Microbial Biology, and Jinny majored in Molecular and Cell Biology.

Our  former Amgen scholar Taylor Harris has co-authored an article on supporting black scientists in STEM.  See article here.

Nate successfully passed his qualifying exam! Nate's research will focus on the immune receptor ZAR1 and its broad recognition of effector proteins.

Jenn and Ilea presented the lab's research on plant-microbe interactions at the Plant Biology 2020 Worldwide Summit and Psyringae2020. Jenn discussed our work on natural diversity in effector recognition. Ilea discussed the CRISPR-Cas3 approach for functional genomics in bacteria.

As part of our ongoing commitment to broadening participation, the Lewis lab and members of the PGEC participated in an excellent workshop on implicit bias.

Jenn was invited to give a talk in MPMI's new remote talk series on Yuan and Claire's citrus greening work, which was MPMI's Editor's Pick for March. The talk is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atlFhMzvoUY.  We identified peptides that elicited immune responses in citrus species and that could prevent plants from an unrelated pathogen.

Nathan Diplock has joined the Lewis Lab for his dissertation research. Nate will focus on ZAR1-mediated recognition of effectors through ZED1 and ZED1-related kinases.

Congratulations to Michelle Clarissa and Anushtha Sharma, who graduated with their B.Sc. degrees in May! Michelle and Anushtha majored in Microbial Biology.

Jamie Calma, an undergraduate student in the lab, has received a URAP summer award to continue her research. Congratulations Jamie!

Nate Diplock is doing a rotation in the lab. Nate was an undergraduate student at Bates College and will be working on ZAR1-mediated recognition.

The Lewis Lab shared our research at the International Society of Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. Jenn discussed our work on peptides from Candidatus Liberibacter pathogens that can trigger immune responses in citrus. Mael presented our work on intramolecular and intermolecular interactions that regulate ZAR1. He also received a travel award to attend the meeting.

Congratulations to Lydia Zhang, who graduated with her B.Sc. in May! Lydia majored in Molecular and Cell Biology.

Jenn gave a talk on our tomato research at the Bay Area Meeting for Tomato Plant Pathology.

Helen Liu from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a new rotating graduate student in the lab. She will be working on ZAR1-mediated recognition.

The Lewis Lab has received a Chau Hoi Shuen Foundation Women in Science research grant! The grant will focus on Pseudomonas syringae infection in Brachypodium.

Congratulations to Steven Yee and former lab member Taylor Harris, who graduated with their B.Sc. degrees in May! Steven majored in Microbial Biology. Taylor was an undergraduate student at Fisk University.

Ilea successfully passed her qualifying exam and has been awarded the prestigious NSF graduate research fellowship for her doctoral work! Ilea is working on bacterial effectors that elicit immune responses in tomato.

Congratulations to Ilea, Taylor and Alice! Ilea Chau received the Grace Kase fellowship, in recognition of excellence for graduate coursework and rotations. Taylor Harris received a poster award at ABRCMS for the work she performed while in our lab. Dr. Alice Boulanger from the University of Toulouse and INRA, received a grant to visit our lab and discuss collaborative research.

Snigdha Chatterjee from Syracuse University, is a new rotating graduate student in the lab. Snigdha will be working on susceptibility genes in plants.

Ilea Chau is joining the Lewis Lab for her PhD studies. She will be examining the contribution of bacterial genes to immune elicitation in tomato.

Undergraduate students Taylor Harris, Zoe Caron and RJ Comandao will be joining us for the summer, to investigate plant-pathogen interactions. Taylor is a student at Fisk University. Zoe is a student at UC Berkeley and RJ is a student at Contra Costa Community College.

Congratulations to Amy Zhu and Juan Alcauter, who graduated with their B.Sc. degrees in May! Amy majored in Molecular Environmental Biology, and Environmental Economics and Policy. Juan majored in Microbial Biology.

Ilea Chau is a new rotating graduate student in the Lewis Lab. Ilea was an undergraduate student at Duke University. She will working on bacterial proteins that are recognized in tomato.

Congratulations to Tuong Pham and Rolin Sauceda, who graduated with their B.Sc. degrees in December! Tu majored in Molecular and Cell Biology, and Integrative Biology. Rolin majored in Genetics and Plant Biology.

Lily Gu is a new graduate student who is rotating in our lab. Lily received her B.Sc. from Emory University and her M.Sc. from Ball State University. Dr. Yuan Chen, formerly of the McCormick Lab has joined us to investigate plant immunity.

Lab members presented research at the IS-MPMI meeting in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Mael Baudin presented a biochemical approach to identify components of ZAR1 immune complexes. Dr. Karl Schreiber presented a high-throughput screen for identifying effector targets.

Four undergraduate students have joined the lab for summer research projects. Tuong Pham, Tanisha Muquit and Rolin Sauceda join us from UC Berkeley. Miguel Palermo joins us from Contra Costa Community College.

Congratulations to Juan Hernandez and Angela Ziqi Liu, who graduated from UC Berkeley with their B.Sc. degrees in May, and Ruben Rubalcava who graduated with his B.Sc. degree from UC Davis in June! Juan majored in Microbial Biology. Angela majored in Molecular and Cell Biology. Ruben majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Dr. Karl Schreiber and Dr. Claire Bendix are two new postdocs in the Lewis Lab. Karl joins us with extensive expertise in molecular plant pathology. Claire joins us with experience in plant biology.

Ray Serafin, our Contra Costa College USDA Scholar, was profiled in The Advocate. See story here.

Congratulations to Dina Nazarchuk and Nolan Mori, who graduated from UC Berkeley with their B.Sc. degrees in May! Dina majored in Molecular Environmental Biology. Nolan majored in Genetics and Plant Biology.

Dr. Mael Baudin is a new postdoc in the Lewis Lab! He joins us from INRA, where he studied symbiotic interactions. He will work on ZAR1-mediated recognition.

Congratulations to Jane Zhou, who graduated from UC Berkeley with her B.A. degree in May! Jane majored in Integrative Biology.