Principal Investigator
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Alexander Chase, PhDDr. Chase received his B.S. in Biological Sciences at UC Los Angeles (UCLA) and his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at UC Irvine, studying the mechanisms driving biogeographic patterns of microbial diversity with Dr. Jennifer Martiny. Through this work, Dr. Chase became interested in the way microbes communicate within their cells, with other microbes, and with the environment. These interactions are largely driven by chemical communication in the form of small molecule natural products. Consequently, Dr. Chase completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography with Dr. Paul Jensen. His research aims to bridge natural product chemistry and microbial ecology to uncover the mechanisms maintaining microbial diversity in microbiomes. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Roy M. Huffington Dept. of Earth Sciences at SMU.
Full CV can be found here. |
Lab Staff
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Bukola "Bukky" Ogungbe, Lab TechnicianBukky has a B.S. in Nuclear Medicine at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas and a M.S. in Clinical Practice Management at Texas Tech University Health Science Center in Lubbock, Texas. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Blue Marble University in Commonwealth of Dominica. Bukky also works with Prof. Neil Tabor and Dr. John Robbins in the Stable Isotope Lab in the Department of Earth Sciences at SMU.
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Graduate Students
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Motahare HaghighatjooMotahare completed her BS and MS degrees at Alzahra University in Tehran, Iran where she investigated the degradation of microplastics by environmental bacteria isolated from the Caspian Sea. She is interested in applying her background in spectroscopy and chromatography to answer questions related to chemical ecology and metabolite mediated interactions in environmental microbiomes. Expected start: Spring 2024
ResearchGate |
Undergraduate Students
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Ruhani AhluwaliaRuhani is a Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholar interested in how microbiomes respond to pollutants (heavy metals) and intermittent environmental perturbations. Ruhani is also an excellent artist/painter, who hosted her own Art Exhibition entitled "Inside Out and Outside In" at the SMU Doolin Gallery.
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Millie Metchick |