Blair Lab Crew

Current Students

Roothy Desir '25
Bio390: Examining genome size of Pythium hybrids via flow cytometry and qPCR

Claire Hill '25
Bio490 TBD

Blair Lab Alumni

Emma Campbell '24
Bio490 and Honors in Biology: Prevalence and diversity of hybrid Pythium lineages and potential impacts of impaired water quality in freshwater streams of Lancaster County, PA

Quyen Hoang '24
Bio490 and Honors in Biology: Genetic and functional diversity of Globisporangium irregulare isolated from industrial hemp soils in south-central Pennsylvania
Bio390: Utilization of microsatellite markers to determine genetic diversity in Pythium species associated with industrial hemp (Spring 2023)

Emmanuela Derival '24
Bio390/490: Metabarcoding analysis of oomycete diversity associated with industrial hemp

Kyra Caffrey '23
Bio490 and Honors in Biology: Optimization of quantitative PCR methods for the detection of Naegleria fowleri and the impact of water quality on amoebae abundance in Lancaster County waterways (in collaboration with the Lancaster County Water Quality Volunteer Coalition)
Bio390: Developing methods for the molecular detection of Lepidopteran pathogens under captive rearing conditions (Spring 2022)
Kyra is currently working for Advisory Board in Washington, DC and recently published her first Market Insight on the challenges of AI in the healthcare industry.

Wenrong Wu '23
Bio490: Metabarcoding data analysis of hemp-associated oomycetes in soils from south-central Pennsylvania

Wenrong is pursuing a Masters program in bioinformatics at UNC Chapel Hill.

Theresa Torre ’22

Bio490: Wolbachia detection in the Pennsylvania Speyeria idalia population
Theresa is currently working as a research technician in the Single Cell Core lab at Harvard Medical School.

Abigael Gebremariam ’21

Bio490: Phylogeographic analysis of Daphnia species in Canadian Rocky Mountain lakes

Abigael completed an NIH-funded postbaccalaureate research program in the Medical Genomics and Metabolic Genetics Branch (MGMGB) and the Organic Acid Research Section (OARS) at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). She will attend Sidney Kimmel Medical College starting Fall 2024 - Congratulations!!

Harrison Laukhuff ’21

Bio490: Analysis of allelic diversity and Wolbachia infection in Speyeria cybele and Speyeria aphrodite of Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania
Harrison is currently working as a research assistant at Targepeutics in collaboration with former F&M visiting professor, Dr. Randy Schrecengost. He will begin his PhD research at Penn State Hershey in Fall 2024.

Maria Meriwether ’21

Bio490 and Honors in Biology: Optimization of molecular methods for the detection of Naegleria fowleri from water and sediment samples in Lancaster County

Maria completed an NIH-funded postbaccalaureate research year in the Wolin Lab at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute. She is currently working as a clinical laboratory scientist in the microbiology lab at National Jewish Health in Denver, Colorado.

Sharil Orellana ’21

Bio490: Quantification of allelic diversity in Speyeria idalia from Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania

Sharil is pursuing a Physician Assistant Master of Science degree at Seton Hall.

Ilga Rutins ’20

Bio490: Prevalence of Wolbachia endosymbionts in local Speyeria butterflies

Ilga is currently working as a research technician at the University of Arizona.

Elizabeth Butler ’19

Bio490: Molecular methods to detect the presence of Aphanomyces astaci from bulk water samples collected from Pennsylvania waterways

Elizabeth is currently employed at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City.

Glenn Robbins ’19

Bio490: Crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci) prevalence in native and invasive crayfish species of Pennsylvanian waterways

Glenn graduated from the DVM program at Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in 2023.

Taryn Asklof ’18

Bio490: Developing microsatellite markers to determine genetic diversity of Phytopythium vexans

Taryn is studying at Pace University and working Mount Sinai Hospital.

Anna Ming Bauer ’18

Bio490: Analysis of hybridization events in aquatic Pythium sp. using flow cytometry and molecular cloning

Ming graduated from the Genetic Counseling Masters program at Sarah Lawrence College in 2021. She is currently working as a prenatal genetic counselor at New Jersey Perinatal Associates.

Eric Lang ’18

Bio490: PCR based assay to detect parasites and pathogens in Monarch and Regal Fritillary butterflies at Fort Indiantown Gap

Eric enrolled in the Special Masters program in physiology at Georgetown University.

Paige Notarianni ’18

Bio490: Investigating DNA methylation as a mechanism of epigenetic regulation in Phytophthora species

Paige is currently working at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Sarah Schannauer ’18

Bio490: Estimating population diversity of Speyeria idalia (Regal Fritillary) in Lebanon County, PA using nuclear microsatellite markers

Sarah graduated from the Physician Assistant Masters program at DeSales University in 2021.

Hanna Aharonov ’16

Bio490: Intraspecific variation in pathogenic behavior in Pythium: does ploidy play a role?

Hanna worked at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Boston after graduation and is currently living in Denver, Colorado.

Sara Lobdell ’16

Bio490: The effect of temperature on the aggressiveness of Pythium heterothallicum

Sara completed internships at the Presidio in San Francisco and at the Glen Helen Center in Ohio. She is currently enrolled in the Environmental Education Masters program at Antioch University.

Madison (Sonny) Clark-Turner ’14

Bio490: Evaluating evidence for horizontal gene transfer events in oomycetes

Sonny completed his PhD in Computer Science, focused on deep learning and robotics, at the University of New Hampshire.

Lauren Coffua ’14

Bio490: Culture and sequence based approaches to studying oomycete diversity in home gardens with a focus on Solanum lycopersicum

Lauren completed a Masters program at the University of Delaware in 2016 and graduated from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2021.

Tyler Veterano ’14

Bio490: Morphological and molecular characterization of novel Pythium species from southeastern Pennsylvania

Tyler graduated with his DO from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2018 and completed his residency in psychiatry at Einstein Medical Center.

Natali Naveh ’13

Bio490: Genomic and bioinformatic investigation of elongation factor 1-alpha duplication in oomycete species

Natali completed her PhD in Genetics at UConn and is currently a post-doc at the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia where she studies human imprinting disorders.

Amy Chabitnoy ’11

Bio490: Evaluating collection methods for assessing Oomycete diversity in Lititz Run at the Millport Conservancy

Amy graduated from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in 2016 and completed her residency in Family Medicine at Swedish Cherry Hill in Seattle, Washington.

Nahill Matari ’11

Bio490: Comparative genomics suggests the presence of RNA interference in Oomycetes

Nahill completed his Masters degree in Biomedical Sciences at UMDNJ and his MD at New York Medical College in 2017. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and Radiology at Greenwich Hospital and Rutgers-Newark, a neuroradiology fellowship at Columbia, and is currently completing a breast imaging fellowship at UPenn.

Lauren Cook ’10

Bio490: Survey of Oomycete species in Lititz Run at the Millport Conservancy in Lititz, Pennsylvania

Lauren graduated from the MD program at Penn State, College of Medicine in Hershey in 2014 and completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Dermatology in 2018.

Andrew Staffaroni ’10

Bio490: Development of microsatellite markers for the identification of Phytophthora populations

Andrew received the Eyler Award to work at the Clinic for Special Children after graduation. He  graduated from the MD program at Georgetown University, School of Medicine in 2015 and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Pitt.

Additional Lab Assistants:

Zoe Shah '25 - Hemp Summer 2022 crew

Johannes Fimmers '21 - working in biotech

Patricia Crigler ’16 – MPH (2018), University of Missouri; VMD (2022), Penn Vet

Carolina Giraldo ’16 - DO (2024), Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Kelsey Kreyche ’15 – DO (2021), Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

James Yun ’15 – MD (2021), Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple

Steve Clipman ’13 – MSPH (2016) and PhD (2021), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Erica Goldberger ‘12 – Living her best life

Alison Griedinger ‘12 – MD (2017), Drexel Medical School; residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Calvin Shaw ‘12 – medical technician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital

Nicholas Tucciarone ‘12 – Emergency Department RN, Lehigh Valley Health Network

Molly Mahoney ‘11 – DVM, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine

Deanna Yamasaki ‘11 – Owner, Do Trot In Tack Shop

Louise Amlie-Wolf ‘10 – Pediatric Genetic Counselor, AI duPont Hospital for Children

Lisa Brown ‘10 – MD (2017), NY Medical College; OB-GYN residency at Lankenau Medical Center

Victor Cabello ‘10 – MD (2019), Geisinger Commonwealth Medical College; Family Medicine residency at Reading Hospital

Jack Pike ‘09 – PhD (2014), University of Delaware; Post-doc at UMDNJ-RWJMS

Samantha Schneider ‘09

Ms. Monique Gomez (McCaskey High School teacher fellow, Summer 2009)

Mrs. Jessica Mountz (Lampeter-Strasburg High School teacher fellow, Summer 2012)