Friendly People
People:
The Cattolico Lab
Rose Ann Cattolico Postdoctorates Graduate Students Visiting Researchers Undergraduate Students Laboratory Support Research Technicians Volunteers Former Lab Members
Rose Ann Cattolico
Rose Ann Cattolico received her doctorate at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, in 1973 and served as a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University until 1975 when she joined the faculty of the University of Washington. Her main research interests have been in the area of chloroplast genome architecture and gene function in non-chlorophy b containing algae as well as functional genetic diversity within stramenopile populations. She currently teaches classes in cell biology and algology.
Rose Ann has been significantly invested in training minority students as well as students with disabilities. Recently she has hosted undergraduates through the Stars and Bridges program (University of Washington), from Native American tribes, the Temple University Young Physicians Program as well as students from many other countries. Through work-study and undergraduate research programs she has consistently supported women minorities. She also routinely participates in the NASA, Mary Gates and Hughes programs that foster undergraduate research.
During her tenure at the University of Washington she has successfully mentored ten PhD students and six masters degree students in the completion of their degrees, and hosted fifteen postdoctoral fellows. She sponsors three to six undergraduates per year in the lab.
Rose Ann enjoys hiking in the North Cascades and Olympic mountains, parenting, raising chickens, and restoring an old, broken down house.
Postdoctorates
Han Chuan Ong
I joined the Cattolico lab in June 2006. My main interest is to sequence the chloroplast genome of several heterokonts and will hopefully be able to conduct some comparative genomics with the fully sequenced genomes. My previous research was in Jeff Palmer's lab at Indiana University where as a graduate student, I studied intracellular and horizontal transfers of mitochondrial genes in grasses. I also sang in the bass section of the Bloomington Chamber Singers for the past 3 years!
Graduate Students
Anne Prather
Anne's research interests involve seed germination response in Arabidopsis Thaliana. Regulation of seed germination response is reflective of a highly-evolved survival strategy in terestrial plants. By controlling germination, reproductive opportunity is maximized. Arabidopsis accessions Ler and Cvi exhibit two distinct kinds of germination response control. The Ler accession is more responsive to seasonal cues and has a greatly reduced dependence on seed dormancy for its germination control. By contrast, Cvi is moderately dormant, and exhibits much less variation due to maternal seasonal cues. QTL analysis of Ler and Cvi recombinant inbred lines reveals a single locus associated with the difference in seed germination delay. Additional loci transgressing from the Ler parent are also associated with delay. Finally, a single major Ler locus in combination with the Cvi delay-associated locus appears to confer a severe constituitive delay phenotype.
In addition to her research interests, Anne Prather is interested in music, science fiction, and photography. Her photographs are on display in Kincaid Hall and more information about her photography can be found at:
Mike Lakeman
Michael is a senior graduate student in the Cattolico Lab where he has been working on his thesis research since 2002. He is interested in questions of the rates of population turn-over within intense phytoplankton blooms, and the environmental factors which may force selection for adaptive genotypes. Is spontaneous mutation a significant contributor to genetic variation within phytoplankton populations, and if so, under what circumstances? How quickly can adaptive phenotypes arise, and underlying that question, how many genetic loci can be responsible for specific adaptations? Michael uses laboratory cultures of H. akashiwo to address these questions.
In 2005, Michael was awarded an EPA STAR Graduate Fellowship for Environmental Study to address the impacts of anthropogenically driven iron-limitation in estuaries on the population structure and toxicity of H. akashiwo. You can read more about this project.
Mike Lakeman's personal web page
Michael Nishizaki
After spending much of his B.Sc. and M.Sc. at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre, Mike is now a first year graduate student at the University of Washington. This allows him to tell kids that he's in about grade twenty. He counts among his heroes David Suzuki, Peter Lougheed and Tim Horton.
Mike is generally interested in the linkages between individual-level processes and population-level patterns. In his Master's this involved studying how the behaviour of juvenile urchins related to larger patterns of recruitment. Of current interest is the collective motion of an aggregating alga, Heterosigma akashiwo. With a background in marine ecology and biomechanics, Mike has joined the lab to take advantage of a wealth of genetic knowledge concerning H. akashiwo.
Mike is co-supervised by Dr. Daniel Grünbaum in the Department of Oceanography.
Personal webpage: www.mikenish.com
Liz Tobin
Megan Black
Megan Black is a graduate student who came to this laboratory in September 2007. She is interested in Heterosigma algae bloom population dynamics and ecology. Megan is planning to employ novel genetic techniques to address these questions. Ms. Black grew up in Olympia along the South Puget Sound and currently resides outside of Sequim on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Megan is a pilot, a skier, the mother of a rambunctious young son, and enjoys hiking with her husband. Megan earned her BA at Colorado College, her MS in coral reef ecology of zooxanthellae at University of the Ryukyusin Okinawa, Japan, and has worked at many labs around the country. Megan's long term goal is to start a center for lifelong learning in Sequim to pair the expertise and energy of retirees with scientific researchers to address long term environmental change on the Olympic Peninsula.
Visiting Researchers
Dr. Myung-Soo Han
Myung-Soo Han received his doctorate at the University of Tokyo in 1988 and served as a postdoctoral fellow at Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute until 1991 when he joined the faculty of the Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea. His main research interests have been in the area of ecological functions and blooming mechanisms of HAB species as well as biological control of marine and freshwater harmful algal blooms using a bio-manipulation. Dr. Han joined the Cattolico Lab in March 2007 to begin his term as a visiting fellow with with his student Bum-Soo. They are interested in molecular genetic population and dynamics of the HAB species. You can read more information about Dr. Han and his laboratory as well as recently published papers on his web page.
Bum-Soo Park
Bum-Soo Park is from Seoul, South Korea, a graduate student at Hanyang University. Visiting this summer at the Cattolico Lab, he is learning techniques for Quantitative Real Time PCR. He is interested in studying harmful algae population dynamics using different kinds of molecular techniques. Bum-Soo will be with us until the end of August.
Undergraduate Students
William Hardin
Bill is currently a junior, and will be graduating in the winter of 2008 with a degree in biochemistry. He joined the Cattolico lab June 2006 as a work-study student, washing glassware and making media. He is currently working on a project using SNPs to bar-code the roughly 46 strains of Heterosigma with the chloroplast genes. Through this work he can look into questions concerning the amount of genetic differences that occur in geographically separated algal populations and follow the dynamics of population identity shifts within a localized area. In his free time Bill enjoys hiking, playing tennis, and making candles.
Loc Ngo
Loc Ngo is a sophomore at the UW (with junior status), majoring in general biology and planning to go into Pharmacy. He began as a basic lab assistant at the Cattolico Lab a year ago and is now assisting on a project sequencing DNA strains to create a library of Heterosigma DNA in preparation for Tilling.
Gary Tomanka
Gary is graduating in June of 2007 with a degree in Cellular, Molecular and Developmental biology. He joined the Cattolico lab in 2006. Gary is working on a bio-fuel project, using algae as a biostock. Skilled in electronics, he brings a unique perspective to his research. His personal interests include golf, fishing, canoeing, and family.
Peter Chong
My name is Peter Chong I am currently an undergraduate planning to major in biology physiology and also preparing to attend medical school. I have started to work in this lab beginning of spring quarter 07. My responsibilities include washing dishes, autoclaving, and keeping the shelves stocked with clean ready to use lab materials. This lab is filled with genuine and friendly people who I am so lucky to be working with.
Athena Gauthier-Bautista
I am a senior according to credits, but won't graduate until 2010 with a BS in cell, molecular, developmental biology. With this degree I plan on applying to dental school to become a dentist. I have a 2 year old son and enjoy spending time with him and watching him grow up, its going by a lot faster than my years in school....I also enjoy just about all sports, doing anything while outdoors, traveling, dancing, creating art, spending time with my family/friends/boyfriend, and trying new things. I just love being very active in the world.
Cong-Thien Vo
I am a 5th year undergrad (a Super Senior) majoring in physiology. I am applying to pharmacy schools and hopefully will be accepted. I like to drive to pointless places on my free time, play video games and do origami. My duties in lab are mostly making culture media, but I also wash glassware, autoclave, and make sure our double-distilled water supply is constantly available. I just got trained in cell culturing and will soon start on a research project involving the Heterosigma chloroplast genome.
Mary Nicholson
Mary is a visiting undergraduate student who will be working in the lab over the summer. She is currently a junior at Loyola University New Orleans, and will be graduating with a degree in Biology in Spring 2009. This summer she is working on looking at a flip in the chloroplast genome in strains of Heterosigma. She is excited to work and is busy spending her free time exploring Seattle.
Research Technicians
Chloe Deodato
Chloe graduated from the UW in 1998 and is glad to be back studying marine biology. She is responsible for overseeing undergraduate student research, ordering supplies and helping with lab maintenance. She is also studying gene expression in Heterosigma subjected to different environmental conditions. When not in the lab, Chloe enjoys playing music, going to concerts and social dancing. Her current dance of choice is Salsa.
Laboratory Support
Molly Brown
Laboratory assistant Molly Brown keeps the day-to-day organization of the lab rolling along, working with students to make sure glassware is clean, supplies ordered, water distilled, and the various kinds of media made. She maintains the axenic algae and diatom cultures and applies her clerical and administrative expertise to a variety of special projects. When not at the lab she writes environmental mystery novels.
Volunteers
Bill Hatheway
Professor Emeritus Volunteer
In support of the lab's publishing and grant-writing activities, Bill Hatheway does literature searches, photocopies journal articles and other materials and reviews manuscripts produced by Rose Ann Cattolico and other lab researchers.
Lynn Benson
Lynn is a part time volunteer at the lab assisting Dr. Han Ong with his PCR project. She hopes to gain more laboratory experience through volunteering. She enjoys yardwork, working on her new house and making jewelry in her free time.