Current Members

Daniel Amador-Noguez

Position title: Primary Investigator

Email: amadornoguez@wisc.edu

Research Focus: Metabolomics and metabolic regulation in biofuel producing bacteria, bacterial biofilms, and the human gut microbiome.

Dave Stevenson

Credentials: Northern Illinois University, Ph.D

Position title: Sr. Research Specialist, Lab Manager

Email: dmstevenson@wisc.edu

Research Focus: LCMS and HPLC method development and use

Lauren Lucas

Credentials: Microbiology, Ph.D UW Madison, Integrative Biology/ Plant and Microbial Biology, BA/BS, UC Berkeley

Position title: Postdoc

Email: llucas3@wisc.edu

Research Focus: I study bile acid metabolism by human gut microbes and lipid membrane composition in bacterial biofilms.

Daven Khana

Credentials: Microbiology/Genetics, BS, University of Georgia

Position title: Ph.D Student

Email: khana@wisc.edu

Research Focus: My projects focus on using quantitative metabolomics and proteomics data to identify bottlenecks in microbial pathways that generate valuable bioproducts.

Julio Rivera Vazquez

Credentials: Biology, BS, Texas A&M

Position title: Ph.D Student

Email: riveravazque@wisc.edu

Research Focus: I investigate the defense mechanisms of Z. mobilis, under a variety of stressors.

Eashant Thusoo

Credentials: Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, BA University of Colorado Boulder

Position title: Masters Student

Email: thusoo@wisc.edu

Research Focus: Investigating Clostridium thermocellum's physiology in an effort to increase biofuel production.

Bhavana Gangwar

Credentials: PhD Microbiology, CSIR-CIMAP/JNU New Delhi, India

Position title: Postdoc

Email: gangwar2@wisc.edu

Research Focus: Mechanistic studies of human gut bacteria in bile acid metabolism and human health

Xuejun Qian

Credentials: Doctor of Engineering- Morgan State University

Position title: Postdoc

Email: xqian56@wisc.edu

Research Focus: Build computational models (e.g., genome scale model and proteome allocation model) of different organisms to study metabolic networks that ultimately maximize production of interested byproducts (e.g., biofuel, chemicals) and increase biomass resources utilization.

Sydney Johnston

Credentials: Microbiology, BS, Iowa State University

Position title: Ph.D Student Co-advised by Dr. Betül Kaçar

Email: sajohnston2@wisc.edu

Research focus: My projects will investigate the adaptive evolution of the bacterial-biofuel organism Z. mobilis through the lens of metabolomics while increasing our understanding of the origins of glycolysis intersectionally through astrobiology.