Montooth Lab Alumni

The Montooth Lab is proud to have been a research home to so many great people
​who are now doing so many great things ...

Past Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr. Katherine O'Brien
Contractor at The Ohio State University

Katherine is a contractor with the Center for Life Science Education at the Ohio State University, as well as outreach coordinator for Science Pub, with Dr. Rob Pyatt. While in the Montooth Lab she worked on identifying and characterizing novel genes responsible for maintaining fitness within alcohol stressed environments to better understand alcohol tolerance across life stages.

Dr. Brent Lockwood
Assistant Professor at University of Vermont

Brent was a postdoc in the lab from 2011-2014 funded by an NIH NRSA fellowship to investigate how cytoskeletal maintenance confers embryo thermal tolerance. Brent is now a PI at University of Vermont continuing this work, as well as his work on the thermal evolution of proteins in marine invertebrates. Brent most recently co-authored the newest version of Biochemical Adaptation with Lars Tomanek and George Somero.

Dr. Jessica Hite
Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison

Jessica was a postdoc in the lab from 2017-2019 funded by an NIH NRSA fellowship and was co-advised by Dr. Clay Cressler and Kristi. Her research focuses on on how natural selection shapes strategies for host defense and parasite transmission. To disentangle these complex interactions, she integrates empirical data with mathematical modeling and use a multidisciplinary approach that is strongly guided by theory and natural history. Her work in the Montooth lab took an explicitly energetic approach, examining the tension that arises from nutritional resources that simultaneously fuel host defenses and parasite growth and development.

Past Graduate Students

Dr.  Brandon Cooper
Assist. Professor at University of Montana

​Brandon was a PhD student in the lab from 2010-2014 funded by an NSF DDIG to investigate the evolution of plasticity in membranes and EtOH metabolism. His current lab investigates the acquisition, spread, and maintenance of Wolbachia infections in nature.

Dr. Luke Hoekstra
PostDoc at Iowa State University

Luke was a PhD student in the lab from 2008-2014, whose thesis investigated the energetic bases for pleiotropic organismal responses to the thermal environment. He is a current PostDoc in the Bronikowski and Janzen labs interested in fitness strategies in turtles. 

Dr. Jeff Adrion
PostDoc at University of Oregon

Jeff was a PhD student in the lab from 2013-2018, whose thesis work with the Montooth Lab  investigated genomic signatures of mitochondrial-nuclear molecular coevolution. Jeff also investigated dynamics of transposable elements in mutation accumulation in natural populations with Dr. Matt Hahn at Indiana University. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Dr. Andy Kern.

Dr. Justin Buchanan
USDA NIFA PostDoc at Vanderbilt University

Justin was a PhD student in the lab from 2014-1019, whose thesis work in the Montooth Lab investigated the energetics of tradeoffs between immune function and reproduction. He is an ecoimmunologist who is currently working in the model Tribolium system in the lab of Dr. Ann Tate.

Past Research Assistants

Signe White
Current PhD student at Emory University

Signe's area of interest is in the evolution of host resistance to infectious diseases and the evolution of pathogenicity due to host spatial and genetic heterogeneity. She received her PhD working with Drs. Jaap de Roode and Levi Morran at Emory University and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at UCSD.

Katie Church
Received MS in Genetic Counseling at the Univ of Alabama

Katie investigated sperm competition in the nursery web spider in collaboration with Alyssa Anderson and Eileen Hebets. She also helped Kristi manage the diverse projects and student researchers in the lab. Katie is now a practicing Genetic Counselor!

Jessica Rice
Studied medicine at Indiana University

Past Undergraduate Researchers 

Maddie Koenig
Montooth Lab 2014-2018
​Current pharmacy student UNMC

Maddie was a UCARE scholar in the lab whose research investigated the role of mitochondrial superoxide dismutase in mitigating the developmental effects of ethanol in flies.

Cassie Treu
Montooth Lab 2014-2016

Cassie was a UCARE scholar in the lab when she investigated antimicrobial peptide production in mitochondrial-nuclear genotypes of flies exposed to infection in her project "AMP Expression in Energetic Hybrid D. melanogaster Infected With P. rettgeri".

Matt Baier
Current medical student at UNMC

Matt was funded by a UCARE grant to investigate virus epidemiology using genetic approaches in flies. He is currently continuing the project "Developing a New Model for Virus Epidemiology in Drosophila Melanogaster" with Colin Meiklejohn.

Katie Gordon
Current PhD Student at Cornell 

Katie is a PhD student in the Lazzaro lab at Cornell which investigates the evolutionary genetics of insect-pathogen interactions. As an undergraduate, she worked in the Meiklejohn/Montooth lab on the evolutionary genetics of speciation & then was a research assistant in the Meiklejohn Lab.

Lindsay Davies
Montooth Lab 2008-2010
Ph.D. Student at University of Georgia

Lindsay investigated the role of lipid metabolism in ethanol tolerance. She also worked in a butterfly garden in Costa Rica and studies how to grow vegetables sustainably. She went on to get her graduate degree in Sustainable Agriculture.​

Mo Siddiq
Montooth Lab 2009-2012
PhD Student at the University of Chicago

As an undergraduate Mo helped us fine-scale map a mitochondrial-nuclear incompatibility and characterize is temperature-sensitive effects on metabolism and develoment. We recently collaborated on a project testing and refuting a classic case of molecular adaptation for his work as a member of the Thornton Lab.

Nick Fisher
Montooth Lab 2010-2011
​Studied Medicine at Indiana University

While in the lab, Nick assisted Brandon Cooper on a project testing for the evolution of plasticity in heterogeneous environments​.

Katie Mika
Montooth Lab 2008-2012
​PhD student at the University of Chicago

Katie investigated the effect of mitochondrial-nuclear interactions on male fertility while she was an undergraduate. Now, she is exploring the role of transposable elements (TEs) in the genesis of new cis-regulatory elements in the Lynch Lab. Check out this amazing paper she published.

Other Alumni

Robert Kobey, 2009-2014
Nick Molby, 2008-10, medical school
Elizabeth Eggleston, 2008-10
Cici Lemke, 2009-12
Anna Guanzon, 2011-12, medical school
Sonya Josephs, 2011
Rob Gassert, 2010-14, medical school
Dan Gutt, 2011-12, law school
Nathan Byrd, 2012-14, medical school
Shaye Metzer, 2012-14
Shelby Beil, 2013-14, medical school
​Brittni McGuier, 2017-2018
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