Interested in joining? Please consider reading the lab culture and expectations first. Some information on our location and space is here. Interested in visiting? Please do! We welcome visitors and short-term research stays as long as we are able -- please send an email to any of us to start the conversation.

📸 

This is the most current one. We have an archive of them here.

From left-bottom of the photo to the top of the stairs: Alex Henoch, Iva Veseli, Florian Trigodet, Xixi Chen, Kathryn Lambert-Slosarska (Katy), Metehan Sever. The bottom pair, left-to-right: Avril von Hoyningen-Huene, Chris Robinson (who happened to be visiting our group from the University of Indiana at the time). The top pair: Raïssa Meyer, Sarah Tucker. The photograph is missing our colleagues Samuel Miller, Matthew Schechter, Jessika Fuessel, Amy Willis, and Marie Carstensen who couldn't make it for various reasons.

Current Members (sorted by name) 

A. Murat Eren (Meren) bio photo

A. Murat Eren (Meren) (PI)

I am a computer scientist with a deep appreciation for the complexity of life. I design algorithms and experiments to better understand microbes and their ecology. [photos: 1, 2, 3].

Affiliations Papers Blog posts
Alexander Henoch bio photo

Alexander Henoch (Graduate Student)

I am a biologist-turned-computer scientist interested in understanding the influence of the environmental change on the genetic composition of microbial populations.

Amy D. Willis bio photo

Amy D. Willis (PI on Sabbatical)

My lab and I develop statistical and computational methods for the analysis of biodiversity data, with a particular focus on the microbiome. Like the Meren lab, I'm passionate about reproducible science, meaningful data analysis, ecosystem and host health, outreach and education, and collaborating with scientists who share these values.

Avril von Hoyningen-Huene bio photo

Avril von Hoyningen-Huene (Post-doctoral Scientist, HIPP)

I am a microbiologist and bioinformatician delving into the dynamics of phytoplankton communities in response to environmental changes.

Florian Trigodet bio photo

Florian Trigodet (Senior Scientist)

I am a microbiologist by training, and as a postdoctoral researcher I am using advanced computational strategies to make sense of the microbial ecology of complex habitats.

Iva Veseli bio photo

Iva Veseli (Post-doctoral Scientist)

I am a computer scientist/biologist who leverages computational methods to explore biological data. Currently, I am studying microbial metabolism in environmental metagenomes.

Kathryn Lambert-Slosarska (Katy) bio photo

Kathryn Lambert-Slosarska (Katy) (Graduate Student)

I am a marine (micro)biologist utilising computational approaches to understand the dynamism and impact of diversity-generating retroelements in microbial lifestyles within changing marine ecosystems.

Affiliations
Kiki Füßel bio photo

Kiki Füßel (Mood Regulator)

I am an environmental scientist and a passionate anthropologist who has mastered the use of somatosensory, olfactory, and gustatory systems. If you need to schedule a meeting with me for my services, feel free to reach my personal assistant, Meren.

Affiliations
  • current Therapy Dog.
Matthew Schechter bio photo

Matthew Schechter (Graduate Student)

I am interested in combining comparative genomics and environmental metagenomics to identify genetic determinants of fitness in microbial populations in the human gut and ocean microbiome.

Metehan Sever bio photo

Metehan Sever (Scientific Programmer)

I am a computer scientist and UX designer who loves to design and develop user interfaces.

Affiliations
Sarah Tucker bio photo

Sarah Tucker (Post-doctoral Scientist)

I am a marine microbiologist interested in the genomic, metabolic, and physiological diversity of microorganisms and how this diversity impacts ecological interactions and ocean processes. Currently, I am using computational approaches to examine how marine microbes respond to environmental change.

Xi Chen (Xixi <a href=https://www.howtopronounce.com/xixi target=_blank>🔊</a>) bio photo

Xi Chen (Xixi 🔊) (Post-doctoral Scientist, HIPP)

I am a bioinformatician and microbial ecologist. I enjoy tailoring computational methods to explore the diversity and dynamics of microbes. My current focus is on those that live in the ocean.

Collaborators 

Those who work closely and actively with our group. It is a fact that we collaborate with many more researchers than what is shown below. The individuals below are those with whom we interact almost daily, who publish with our group very frequently, and with whom we always have something active. They are almost a member of our group with their contributions to our work, but they are just elsewhere.

Jessika Füssel bio photo

Jessika Füssel

My aim is to understand the production and fate of microbial metabolites within the context of changing environmental conditions using multi-omics approaches.

Alumni (sorted by date) 

Those who were officiallly affiliated with our group and continued their career elsewhere. If you see yourself or someone else below with outdated information, please edit this file.

Cynthia Wang bio photo

Cynthia Wang

Cynthia was a Fulbright Scholar in our group between 09/2022 and 07/2023. She investigated computational means to study the interplay between codon composition in genomes and their metabolic priorities.. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Cynthia was A graduate student at the Biophysical Sciences Graduate Program at the University of Chicago..

Emily Fogarty bio photo

Emily Fogarty

Emily was a Graduate Student in our group between 06/2018 and 06/2023. Emily put an effort into understanding the ecology and evolution of naturally occurring plasmids of the human gut microbiome. Her work described the ecology of pBI143, a cryptic plasmid that happens to be one of the most prevalent and numerous extrachromosomal circular elements of the human gut. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Emily was a Clinical Affairs Associate at the Theralink Technologies, Inc...

Isaac Fink bio photo

Isaac Fink

Isaac was a Undergraduate Researcher in our group between 04/2020 and 01/2023. Isaac worked on implementing new capabilities for anvi'o to visualize genomic contexts interactively, and contributed code to improve interactive interfaces of anvi'o.. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Isaac was an Associate Software Engineer at Veeva Systems..

Samuel Miller bio photo

Samuel Miller

Sam was a Post-doctoral Scientist in our group between 11/2019 and 9/2022. Sam took on one of the most exciting challenges our group has to offer: taking advantage of the recent advances in high-throughput sequencing of short RNA molecules to make sense of microbial tRNA transcripts in complex habitats. Towards this goal, he developed novel and advanced open-source software tools to study all aspects of chemical modification and relative abundance analysis of tRNA transcripts, and combining them with tRNA genes, codons, and metabolisms found in genomes and metagenomes. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Sam was a Scientific Programmer for the Center for Chemical Currencies of a Microbial Planet at the Marine Biological Laboratory..

Matthew Lawrence Klein bio photo

Matthew Lawrence Klein

Matthew was a Programmer in our group between 11/2020 and 10/2022. Matthew focused on improving the anvi'o interactive interface. He has made numerous significant contributions to anvi'o that improved the responsiveness of the interactive interface, addressed many bugs, and added most needed features.. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Matthew was a Software Developer in Los Angeles.

Evan Kiefl bio photo

Evan Kiefl

Evan was a Graduate Student in our group between 04/2017 and 06/2022. Evan has made technical and intellectual contributions that allowed us to interpret the genetic diversity within naturally occuring microbial populations in the context of their predicted protein structures. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Evan was a Protein Bioinformatician at Arcadia Science.

Karen Lolans bio photo

Karen Lolans

Karen was a Senior Research Technician in our group between 07/2018 and 10/2021. Karen has made significant contributons to the wet-lab branch of our group at the University of Chicago by creating and benchmarking protocols for tRNA sequencing and high molecular weight DNA extraction for long-read sequencing even from most challenging samples of low-biomass and host contamination. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Karen was a Senior Technician at the University of Chicago.

Andrea Watson bio photo

Andrea Watson

Andrea was a Graduate Student in our group between 06/2017 and 09/2021. Throughout her graduate work, Andrea investigated the determinants of microbial colonization in the human gut, a critical question of the human microbiome research that has been beyond our reach outside of simplified model systems. Using genome-resolved metagenomics and fecal microbiota transplantation experiments, Andrea has found some answers to discuss the factors that influence microbial biodiversity in stressful gut environments. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Andrea was a Bioinformatics Scientist II at Vedanta Biosciences.

Jessica Pan bio photo

Jessica Pan

Jessica was a Undergraduate Researcher in our group between 06/2019 and 09/2020. Jessica has joined our lab as a high-school student and made significant contributions to the completely brand-new anvi'o help system. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Jessica was a Computer Science Master's Student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Abigail Schmid bio photo

Abigail Schmid

Abby was a Undergraduate Researcher in our group between 10/2017 and 09/2020. Abby joined our group as an undergraduate researcher and used pangenomics and metagenomics for high-throughput characterization on hypervariable genomic islands of some of the most prevalent members of the human microbiome. Her work left behind a treasure trove of insights into some of the most interesting parts of microbial genomes. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Abby was an Engineering Science PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Joe Runde bio photo

Joe Runde

Joe was a Physician Researcher in our group between 07/2018 and 07/2020. In addition to serving as a Physician Researcher at the University of Chicago Medicine, Joe joined our group to study with us the microbial community dynamics in Chron's disease during Exclusive Enteral Nutrition therapy. His dedication and passion had a huge influence on our lab culture and dynamics. The last time we checked (which was in 2023), Joe was an Assistant Professor at the Lurie Children's Hospital, Northwestern University.

Alon Shaiber bio photo

Alon Shaiber

Alon was a Graduate Student in our group between 10/2016 and 02/2020. Throughout his studies of the human oral cavity microbiome and its enigmatic members via genome-resolved metagenomics, he served the community with his open code and tutorials. Alon, the very first graduate student to join our group, dramatically influenced the trajectory of our science. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Alon was the Computational Biology Team Lead at Immunai.

Özcan C. Esen bio photo

Özcan C. Esen

Ozcan was a Programmer in our group between 02/2016 and 02/2020. Ozcan worked on anvi'o since it was nothing more than an idea, and has been one of the most prolific developers of it during the last five years. His remarkable contributions to the interactive capabilities of anvi'o has always been a critical component of the platform, and will continue to help many life scientists who use anvi'o.

Mahmoud Yousef bio photo

Mahmoud Yousef

Mahmoud was a Undergraduate Researcher in our group between 05/2017 and 02/2020. Focusing on pangenomics, he developed functional and geometric homogeneity indices so we can interpret the heterogeneity within gene clusters.. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Mahmoud was an MD/PhD student at the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago.

Quentin Clayssen bio photo

Quentin Clayssen

Quentin was a FACCTS Visiting Scientist in our group between 04/2019 and 10/2019. He contributed to the development of an anvi'o framework for the rapid determination of genome taxonomy. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Quentin was a Bioinformatician at DNA Script.

Sonny T. M. Lee bio photo

Sonny T. M. Lee

Sonny was a Post-doctoral Scientist in our group between 05/2016 and 05/2018. He took the responsibility of leading the Fecal Microbiota Transplantation work in our lab. Sonny also was the driving force behind setting up the wet-lab component of our group. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Sonny was an Associate Professor of Microbial Ecology (http://www.the-lee-lab.com) at the Kansas State University, Division of Biology.

Steven Cui bio photo

Steven Cui

Steven was a Summer Student in our group between 07/2016 and 10/2016. He contributed to the development of tRNA-seq tools, a project that bridged Meren's and Tao Pan's interests. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Steven was a Principal Associate and a Senior Software Engineer Capital One.

Tom O. Delmont bio photo

Tom O. Delmont

Tom was a Post-doctoral Scientist in our group between 10/2015 and 05/2018. He contributed to the development of anvi'o and its application to the ocean and gut metagenomes. Tom was the very first member of our lab, and Meren and Tom have spent lots of time together thinking about new ways to make sense of metagenomic data. The last time we checked (which was in 2024), Tom was a CNRS scientist at the Genoscope in France.

Community 

Those who generously shared their experiences, opinions and/or computational expertise with us and others through blog posts that appeared on our web pages. If you see yourself or someone else below with outdated information, please edit this file.

Michael Yu bio photo

Michael Yu

I develop new machine learning methods and algorithms to study large biomedical datasets. I'm interested in transferring techniques in computational biology to other fields, including natural language processing.

Blair G. Paul bio photo

Blair G. Paul

Our lab investigates the influence of genetic variation on physical and chemical interactions among microorganisms, with additional interest in microbe-virus dynamics.

Antonio Fernandez-Guerra bio photo

Antonio Fernandez-Guerra

My group and I develop and apply new methodologies to analyze modern and ancient (meta)genomic data. We like to use ancient microbes to reconstruct past environments and make sense of the genes of unknown function in genomes and metagenomes.

Veronika Kivenson bio photo

Veronika Kivenson

Papers Blog posts
Antti Karkman bio photo

Antti Karkman

Papers Blog posts
Elaina Graham bio photo

Elaina Graham

Vincent J. Denef bio photo

Vincent J. Denef

Jacob T. Evans bio photo

Jacob T. Evans

Visitors (sorted by arrival date) 

Those who visited our laboratory for a period of a week or longer.

  • Eeva Eronen-Rasimus (Senior Researcher, Marine Reserach Center, Finnish Environmental Institute 🇫🇮) arrived on 10/2024 and stayed with us for about 10 days.

    Eeva, Igor, and Tommi during a lunch meeting with the rest of the group :)

  • Tommi Välikangas (Postdoctoral Scientist, Natural Resources Institute Finland 🇫🇮) arrived on 10/2024 and stayed with us for about 10 days.
  • Igor Pessi (Postdoctoral Scientist, Finnish Environment Institute 🇫🇮) arrived on 10/2024 and stayed with us for about 10 days.
  • Steve Giovannoni (Professor, Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University 🇺🇸) arrived on 07/2024 and stayed with us for about 3 months. A large proportion of the logistics of Steve's visit was coordinated by the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK), an independent institute for advanced study and a non-profit foundation. We are extremely lucky in Oldenburg that such an institute exists and supports international collaborators who wish to visit a lab in the region. If you are thinking about coming here for a sabbatical or a for a few months of research stay, please consider visiting the HWK web page.

    Journal Club with Steve.

  • Arthur Cousson (Graduate Student, EcoSols Joint Research Unit, Institut Agro Montpellier 🇫🇷) arrived on 05/2024 and stayed with us for about 8 weeks.

    Arthur and others.

  • Oleg Vlasovets (Graduate Student, Helmholtz Zentrum München 🇩🇪) arrived on 01/2024 and stayed with us for about 3 months.

    Lunch meeting with Oleg (on the most left), Daan Speth, Tom Delmont, Sarahi Garcia, and others in the lab.

  • Mary Ann Moran (Professor, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia 🇺🇸) arrived on 10/2023 and stayed with us for about a week.

    Sarahi Garcia, Sandra McLellan, Jessika Fuessel, Meren, and Mary Ann Moran in Bremen.

  • Sandra McLellan (Professor, School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 🇺🇸) arrived on 10/2023 and stayed with us for about a week.
  • Jed Fuhrman (Professor, Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Southern California 🇺🇸) arrived on 09/2022 and stayed with us for about a week.

    Tom Delmont, Jed Fuhrman, Meren, and all the carboard boxes.