Dr. Kimberley Seed, Associate Professor, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley
Education and Training:
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Molecular Biology & Microbiology, Tufts University School of Medicine
Ph.D. Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Alberta
Tansu Bagdatli - Graduate Student
Tansu received a BS. in Molecular Biotechnology from the Technical University of Munich in Germany in 2018.
After graduation, she worked in the industry for sustainable biofuel manufacturing from cellulosic biomass (Clariant and REG Life Sciences). She then pursued a research technician position at Stanford University, investigating the role of noncoding variations in disease.
Tansu is fascinated by the arms race between phages and bacteria and is excited to pursue her Ph.D. thesis in the Seed Lab.
Caroline Boyd - Graduate Student
Caroline received a B.A. in Molecular Biology from Colorado College where she studied the role of Type IV pili in natural competence in A. baylyi using atomic force microscopy.
Her current interests are in the molecular mechanisms regulating PLE transduction. She is particularly focused on understanding how PLE interacts with and manipulates ICP1 machinery for its own purposes.
Ani Chouldjian - Graduate Student
Ani received a B.S. in Microbiology from UC Berkeley in 2021. After her studies, she worked on cancer research at Stanford University’s Gray Lab, where she studied SENP proteases as potential targets for cancer therapy. She decided to return to the microbial world by joining the Plant and Microbial Biology program at UC Berkeley in 2023. She is interested in studying V. cholerae phage defense systems and finding phage-encoded inhibitors of these systems as a member of the Seed Lab.
Jeannette Farnham - Staff Research Associate
Jeannette received a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota where she did research in Plant Pathology. In the Seed lab, Jeannette is investigating contemporary trends in the co-evolution between V. cholerae and phages from clinical surveillance efforts in collaboration with the icddr,b.
Yamini Mathur - Postdoc
Yamini studied the function and mechanism of enzymes involved in the anaerobic biosynthesis of vitamin B12 for her PhD at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune. She received her BS biochemistry from Jaipur National University with a strong emphasis on human health and nutrition.
Yamini is now keen to extend her biochemistry training into understanding the mechanisms of novel players in the Vibrio versus phage arms race.
Cierra Ord - Graduate Student
Cierra received a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine where she studied the dissemination mechanisms and evolution of antibiotic resistance within environmental Gram-negative bacteria. Now she's a Microbiology PhD student at UCB interested in identifying novel phage defense mechanisms within Vibrio species.
Reid Oshiro - Postdoc
Reid studied the role of posttranscriptional regulation in governing synthesis of the flagellar filament protein in B. subtilis for his PhD at Indiana University – Bloomington.
He received a BS in Microbiology and Psychology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa where he studied heterocyst development in the filamentous cyanobacterium Anabaena.
Reid is interested in characterizing understudied phage defense systems in V. cholerae.
Kishen Patel - Graduate Student
Kishen received a B.S. in Biomolecular Engineering and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2019. While there, they researched how phage can reduce growth of shiga toxin-producing E. coli. Realizing their passion for infectious disease research, Kishen joined the Infectious Disease and Immunity program at UC Berkeley in the Fall of 2019. Now, Kishen’s interests focus on anti-phage mechanisms employed by Vibrio cholerae to subvert phage predation.
Emma Ramirez - Staff
Coming soon…
Marize Rizkalla - Graduate Student
Marize received a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of California, Irvine where she researched the evolution and mobilization of antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors in Gram-negative bacteria collected from the environment. After graduation, Marize joined the Infectious Diseases and Immunity program at UC Berkeley, where she’s pursuing her PhD in the Seed Lab. She is interested in studying the mechanisms employed by V. cholerae and its disease associated phages to target and resist each other during infection.