PMCB Students Profile
Tariq Akhtar
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Tariq is currently working in Dr. Andrew Hanson's Lab. He is from Canada, Tariq's educational background is in Biochemistry and his abstract of work includes folate metabolism in plants.
His favorite thing about Gainesville is that nature is only minutes away he misses true winter and does not care for the area traffic. Outside of work Tariq enjoys married life and the beautiful Florida weather.
Derek Drost
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Derek is currently working a in forest genomics with Dr. Gary Peter and Dr. Matias Kirst. Derek is from North Carolina, and received his B.S. in Agricultural Sciences with Distinction at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Derek is exploring phenotypic variation in leaf traits between evolutionarily distant species in the genus Populus by combining traditional quantitative genetics with whole-genome expression analysis to identify genes and expression networks that influence these traits.His favorite things about Gainesville include the proximity to the beach, the winter weather, UF's museums and arts scene and good restaurants. He is not too fond of the traffic, the humid summer weather and the expensive and inconvenient air travel options.
Melissa Hamner
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Melissa is currently working in Dr. Harry Klee's Lab. Melissa is from San Antonio, TX, and received her B.S. in Biology at Trinity University. Dr. Klee's Lab works on improving flavor in tomatoes. Many of the molecules that contribute to flavor are volatiles. Melissa is working on identifying and characterizing glucosyltransferases, enzymes that add a glucose to these volatiles. When glucosylated, volatile molecules become stable and, therefore, cannot contribute to flavor.
Her favorite thing about Gainesville is that there are lots of beautiful places to hike, there are good performing arts events that students can get cheap tickets to, UF has a great gymnastics team. She does not care for the traffic and that there is not too much to do outside of the University. Melissa also enjoys cooking, gardening, hiking, working out, watching movies, and playing piano and violin for her church.
Charles Hunter
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Chip is currently working in Dr. Karen Koch's Lab. He is from Panama City, FL. Chip's most recent publications include "Genomics of plant cell wall biogenesis". Planta and "Sequence-indexed mutations in maize using the UniformMu transposon-tagging population." BMC Genomics. Chip finds the best thing about the Gainesville area is the that there is always plenty to do and there are lots of young people in the area.
Barbara Kahn
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Barbara is currently working in Dr. Gary Peter's lab. She is from Los Angles, CA and Orlando, FL. Barbara received her B.A. in Biology at New College of Florida. She is currently using proteomics to uncover quantitative trait loci important to variation in protein expression in Populus. Barbara enjoys hiking, backpacking, drawing, reading, watching movies and insect collecting. In her opinion the best things about Gainesville are The Top, Paynes Prairie, and the proximity to a bunch of other things like Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville and beaches. She is not fond of the traffic, crowded buses, and loud apartment complexes.
Gregory Maloney
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Greg is currently working in Dr. Harry Klee's Lab. Greg is from Wilmington, DE and received his B.S. in Landscape Horticulture at the University of Delaware. Greg's work includes working with the ~20 volatile compounds which are important for tomato flavor and they include the breakdown products of fatty acids, carotenoids, and amino acids. Their results reveal that tomato fruit may have a branched-chain amino acid catabolism pathway similar to that in yeast.
Greg enjoys hiking in the many local parks and wildlife reserves, watching Gator baseball, playing racquetball and gardening. His favorite things about Gainesville include the great selection of night life, restaurants, stores and other things to do, he is least crazy about the congested roads during the academic year.
Federico Martin
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Federico is currently working in Dr. A. Mark Settle's Lab. Federico is from Santa Fe, Argentina and received his B. S. in Biosciences and Biotechnology at Arizona State University. Federico's interests interests have always been related to biological sciences. He originally wanted to become an MD but after learning about the great opportunities and impact of biotechnology he decided to focus on research. I have had experience working in hydrogen production in cyanobacteria, as well as working in the development of a plant based vaccine against bubonic and pneumonic plague in tomato.
Outside of work Federico spends a lot of time swimming, playing soccer spending time with friends and salsa dancing. He finds that he best thing about Gainesville is that you can virtually walk or ride anywhere. The downside is the congestion during the academic year.
Johathan Martin
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Jon is currently working in Dr. Ken Cline's Lab. He is from Fair Oaks, CA and received his B.S. in Plant Biotechnology from UC Davis. Currently he is focused on biogenesis of chloroplast thylakoid protein translocases, and in effect, how translocation establishes and maintains chloroplast identity. Related interests include membrane protein integration, lipid-protein interaction, and protein-mediated membrane shaping. Outside of work Jon enjoys cycling, camping, sailing, kayaking and running. He finds the best things about Gainesville are the perfect winters, natural springs, beaches, cycling trails and music scene.
Courtney Morriss
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Courtney is currently working in Dr. Alice Harmon's Lab. She is from Greyson, GA and earned her B.S. in Biotechnology from BYU. The synthesis of cysteine in plants occurs in the cytosol, plastids and mitochondria through sequential reactions catalyzed by serine acetyltransferase (SAT) and O-acetylserine(thiol) lyase (OASTL). SAT synthesizes O-acetylserine (OAS) from L-serine and acetyl-CoA. OASTL subsequently catalyzes the formation of cysteine from OAS and sulfide. SAT and OASTL reversibly form protein complexes that can modulate enzyme activity. Courtney enjoys hiking, swimming, traveling and reading. Her favorite thing about Gainesville is Gator sports and she hates being stuck in the lab when it is always gorgeous outside.
Brent O'Brien
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Brent works in Dr. Karen Koch's Lab. He is from North Carolina and earned his B.S. in Plant Science from the University of Florida. Currently Brent is characterizing maize mutants containing transposable element insertions in cell wall biosynthetic genes, and gene expression analysis of maize embryo protoplasts throughout regeneration of the cell wall. Outside of the lab Brent enjoys fishing. His favorite things about Gainesville include the nightlife and the winter weather and he could do without the traffic and summer humidity.
Tania Quesada
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Tania is currently working in Dr. John Davis's Lab. She is from San Jose, Costa Rica and earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of Costa Rica. Tania is using association genetics, which relies on historical recombinations, to determine significant associations between the disease resistance phenotypes and SNP molecular markers. In her free time Tania enjoys cooking, movies and outdoor activities. She also is a great salsa and merengue dancer. In Costa Rica she plays the marimba, a traditional wood xylophone along with several of her family members. Her favorite things about Gainesville include the cultural activities at the Performing Arts Center, good library resources and convenient bus routes. She could do without the hot and humid summers.
Gustavo Ramirez
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Gustavo is currently working with Dr. John Davis in the Forest Genomics Lab. He is from Colombia and earned his B.S. in Agronomy from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. His work focuses on cytokinin response regulators in poplar. His goal is to characterize all genes in this family and to discover gene function by reverse-genetics. When he is not in the lab Gustavo enjoys running, working out, hiking, cooking, dancing and friends. For him the best things about Gainesville are that both the Atlantic and Gulf beaches are relatively close and there are a fair amount of springs nearby.
