Team
Associate Lab Members
Luisa Zamora Chavez (she/they), Arizona State University
Luisa is a Master's student in Nate Upham's lab investigating how two aspects of wildlife biology influence rodent lung fungal communities: (1) phylogenetic relatedness of rodent host populations; and (2) habitat similarity over adjacent elevational biomes. She is determining these dynamics in rodents found in one of the Madrean Sky Islands, a set of highly biodiverse and isolated mountain ranges spanning the s southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. Luisa's Master's thesis seeks to not only determine how the composition of wild rodent lung mycobiomes varies with host phylogeny and habitat, but also understand the dynamics of host reservoir co-evolution with certain fungal taxa, such as Coccidioides (the causative agent of Valley fever).
Laura Rodriguez (she/her), New Mexico Tech
Laura is a Ph.D. student in Earth and Environmental Science at New Mexico Tech, specializing in geobiology under the guidance of Dan Jones. She investigates active bacterial and archaeal populations, characterizes fungal communities, and examines the bioweathering potential in the sulfuric acid caves, particularly in the Frasassi Cave System in Italy. Using amplicon sequencing, metatranscriptomics, and culture-based approaches, her work links microbial activity to biogeochemical cycles and limestone dissolution. Her research aims to identify the microbes that inhabit these caves and understand how they might contribute to cave dissolution. These studies expand our knowledge of life in extreme environments and provide analogs for life on other planets.
