Team

If you are a prospective graduate student, postdoc candidate, or undergraduate interested in joining our lab, please see the opportunities page.

Current Members

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Group Leader: Valerie De Anda

Assistant Professor

Valerie de Anda is an environmental microbial bioinformatician with a passion for exploring microorganisms in extreme environments. A first-generation college graduate, she earned her degree in Biology summa cum laude from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). During her undergraduate studies, she volunteered at the Molecular Biology lab of the Biomedical Research Institute at UNAM and was awarded an academic excellence scholarship to study abroad at the University of Valencia, Spain. She completed her undergraduate thesis on the directed evolution of proteins at the Biotechnology Institute in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Her passion for microbiology and environmental conservation led her to pursue a Ph.D. with Valeria Souza at the Experimental Molecular Evolution Lab at UNAM’s Institute of Ecology. During her PhD, she spent two years in Laboratory of Computational and Structural Biology at EEAD-CSIC (Zaragoza, Spain) being coadvised by Dr. Bruno Contreras Moreira. After her Ph.D., Valerie joined the University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) as a postdoctoral researcher in the Baker Marine Microbial Ecology Lab in 2018. After two years, she became a Research Associate with PI status, Research Scientist and Provost’s Early Career Fellow. As Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, Valerie continues her research on microbial life in extreme environments, aiming to understand its role in ecosystem functioning and its implications for life beyond Earth. As a first-generation scientist, she is deeply committed to mentoring students from diverse backgrounds and inspiring the next generation of researchers.

Lab Manager

Chang Jae

Coming from a background in marine ecology, Chang completed his PhD at the University of Wisconsin where he studied phytoplankton ecophysiology. His primary interests are the microbial diversity and function in marine ecosystems. Chang is continuing to work with microbes in the ocean while managing Dr. Willm Martens-Habbena lab and the De Anda as a biological scientist in Microbiology Department at the FLREC.

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PhD student

Swati Dubey

Swati is majorly interested in exploring research questions related to environmental microbiology, deep-sea microbiology and geomicrobiology through the aspect of microbial physiology and ecology. Swati holds a Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Microbiology (University of Lucknow, India) and her most recent affiliation (prior to UF) has been with Indian Institute of Science, India. She has worked upon a wide range of scientific questions involving Mycobacterium’s biofilm, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria, metal tolerant microbes & space habitation ideas. Swati finds extremophiles very fascinating and is enthused by the ideas involving possibilities of extra-terrestrial life. When not working on microbes, Swati likes to read, listen to music and travel.

Computational Reserach Scientist

Nikhil Kalidasu

Nikhil is an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin pursuing a double major in biology and computer science. His academic journey reflects a passion for interdisciplinary research, bridging the gap between computational techniques and biological insights. For the past year, Nikhil has been working with Valerie De Anda, focusing on the application of interpretable embedding generation for nucleotide sequence datasets. He has developed the Sequence Representative Embedding Generator (SeREGen), a software package for generating embeddings from DNA/RNA/protein datasets such that the distance between embeddings in embedding space is a predictor for the true edit distance between the original sequences. This and his planned future work make major advancements in the interpretability of sequence embeddings.

Currently, Nikhil serves as a computational scientist in Dr. De Anda's lab, continuing the work on sequence embeddings while also contributing to a diverse array of new projects. In this role, he applies his dual expertise in biology and computer science to tackle complex biological questions through computational methods. He also manages the computing infrastructure for the lab and ensures that everyone is able to maintain access to their data and run their analyses.

Email | GitHub

Bioinformatics Research Assistant

Hannah Cardenas

Hannah Cardenas is a senior at the University of Florida, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology & Cell Science with a minor in Bioinformatics. With a strong interest in computational biology and bioinformatics, she aims to apply her expertise in industry or research settings to develop data-driven solutions in genomics and molecular biology.

As a Bioinformatics Research Assistant in the De Anda Lab, Hannah conducts computational analysis of large-scale genomic datasets, focusing on novel extremophile species collected from hydrothermal vents. She utilizes sequencing technologies and scripting tools such as Python, R, and Bash to optimize workflows for Nanopore sequencing.

Beyond her research, Hannah provides bioinformatics support for multiple projects, including developing training materials and reference guides for bio-computing techniques using UF’s HiPerGator supercomputer. She also contributes to the development of machine learning algorithms and software tools for genomic research.

Outside the lab, Hannah enjoys nature photography, cooking, baking, hiking, recreational sports, and yoga.

Past members

Rotation Students Fall semester 2024

Microbiology and Cell Sciences PhD program UF

Macie Binda

Macie is interested in environmental microbiology, particularly extremophiles and bioremediation, with a focus on biotechnological applications. Macie holds two bachelor’s degrees in Microbiology and Marine Science from the University of Florida. During her undergraduate studies, she researched non-traditional methods to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). She characterized a soil isolate, Serratia marcescens, leading to the discovery of novel intermediates in the prodigiosin biosynthetic pathway. Macie is also a passionate advocate for undergraduate research, having co-hosted three microbiology undergraduate research symposiums that provided a platform for fostering innovation and communication amongst STEM personnel.

Currently, Macie is a first-year PhD student in the Microbiology and Cell Science Department at the University of Florida. In their rotation at the De Anda Lab, Macie is looking forward to expanding their bioinformatics skills and in understanding deep sea extremophiles, particularly those residing in hydrothermal vents. To further supplement her learning, Macie will be writing a review paper on the evolution of marine microbes and is fascinated in exploring their potential biotechnological applications.

Jackson Bland

Jackson is primarily interested in the discovery, application, and manipulation of novel and preexisting cellular systems to better benefit the environment and human health. His first experience with research was discovering his own bacteriophage, which he named, sequenced, and annotated. He has done extensive bioinformatics and proteomics work in bacteriophages. He has also conducted bioinformatics work investigating the role of intrinsic disorder in Merkel Cell Polyomavirus and has contributed to better understanding HECTD3’s role in cancer. He is a proponent of undergraduate research and has founded a program at his undergraduate university to teach undergraduates basic biotech research skills. Currently, he is a first year PhD student in Microbiology at the University of Florida, taking courses, teaching, and doing research in rotations.

During his rotation In the De Anda Lab, he hopes to better understand the mechanisms of PFAS-degrading microbes and hopes to do some interesting bioinformatic analyses.

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