Current Lab Members

Val Sawiccy

Ph.D Candidate

Currently, I am a doctoral candidate in the Weis Lab at Oregon State University (OSU) and will be graduating in 2023. Broadly, I am interested in the cellular, molecular, and metabolic mechanisms in corals and how these mechanisms influence their partnership with algae. More specifically, I am interested in the cellular pathways that may eliminate symbionts from host tissues (i.e., cnidarian bleaching). For my dissertation, I am investigating the role of NADPH oxidase in the maintenance and breakdown of this partnership. In addition, I am using volatilomics to reveal volatile metabolites specific to symbiotic state in Aiptasia. Also, I am examining how the volatilome changes during heat stress and the subsequent loss of partnership.

Personal website: sites.google.com/view/valsawiccy/home

I am a fourth year PhD Candidate in the Weis Lab studying the impacts of nutrition on asexual reproduction in corals. I graduated from Swarthmore College in 2015 with a double Bachelor's in Biology and Ancient History. After graduating, I worked in a cryptic genetic variation lab at Georgia Institute of Technology where we examined the genes essential for development in C. elegans. Then I worked at Emory University on various HIV/SIV pathogenesis projects that looked at the role of CD8 T cells in long-term viral incubation and reactivation. From here, I became interested in how we use model systems to answer cellular and physiological questions, and combined that with my interest in marine sciences to begin study on the cnidarian-algal symbiosis. For my projects, I will use the model system Exaiptasia diaphana (Aiptasia) to examine the nutritional underpinnings of symbiosis at different life stages. For one of my projects, I will measure how nutritional provisioning in pedal lacerates is affected by the environmental and feeding conditions undergone by the parents. In another one of my projects, I will look to characterize the metabolome of pedal lacerates and examine which molecules are present and/or essential for development in pedal lacerates

Erick White

Ph.D Candidate

Jun Cai

I am a second year PhD student in the Weis Lab and studying thermal stress on cnidarian-algal symbiosis. In 2016, I graduated from Emory University with a B.S. in Environmental Science and a secondary major in History. There I studied the transmission of West Nile virus from Culex mosquitoes in Atlanta, Georgia at Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec's lab. After undergraduate studies, I joined Teach for America and taught high school biology and middle school integrative science for four years in Stockton and Oakland, California. I became interested in cnidarian-algal symbiosis when I worked for a summer at John Pringle's lab in Stanford University. There I worked with Phillip Cleves on projects related to acclimation of Aiptasia to thermal stress and the genetic response of Aiptasia to light and dark treatments. For my research, I am interested in the effects of thermal stress on the breakdown of cnidarian-algal symbiosis (i.e., cnidarian bleaching) and the molecular and cellular mechanisms essential for heat tolerance and recovery. Two of my current projects look at the growth and development of pedal lacerate under heat stress and wound-healing and regeneration of tissues.

Ph.D Student

Olivia Burleigh

Ph.D Student

I am an incoming first year PhD student in the Weis Lab and will be studying cnidarian-algal symbiosis. In 2021, I graduated from Creighton University with a B.S. in Biology and minors in Environmental Sciences and Studio Art. During my undergraduate career and during my gap year, I studied the role of long non-coding RNAs in regulating inflammatory responses in mice.

Dr. Samuel Bedgood

Postdoc

I am a postdoc in the Weis Lab studying the nutritional exchanges between cnidarians and their algal partners. I am especially interested in symbiosis establishment and maintenance during cnidarian development. Aiptasia, a model organism for cnidarian-algae symbiosis, allows us to study how algal symbiont presence or identity affects the growth and development of asexual offspring produced through pedal laceration. I completed my Ph.D. at UC Irvine with Dr. Matthew Bracken where I studied the physiology and ecology of intertidal sea anemones in the genus Anthopleura. I enjoy designing aquariums for research, imaging on microscopes, and working in the field. My research background has been broad and includes ecological surveys, isotopic diet studies, behavioral studies, physiological measures, and cellular biology.