Current Lab Members
Obed Hernández-Gómez PhD
Assistant Professor
I am an Assistant Professor at Dominican University of California as of January 2020. I recently completed two postdoctoral fellowships (NSF PRFB and National Academies of Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering Ford Foundation Fellowships) at UC Berkeley. Prior to that, I obtained my PhD from Purdue University and a bachelors from Texas Tech University. I had the privilege of working as a licensed vocational nurse during my undergrad and graduate education. I have more than 10 years of experience in the healthcare field, and I am excited to help students who are interested in this industry! My research interests are microbial ecology and immunogenetics in relation to amphibians. Currently, I am working on projects dealing with host-genetic influences on microbiomes, co-evolutionary associations between parasites and hosts, and metagenomics of host-associated microbiomes.
Elijah Costley-Trigueros
Teaching Intern
Junior, Dominican University of California
Elijah joined the lab through the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research Methodology Program. He is interested in researching skin microbiomes of woodland salamanders in the San Francisco Bay Area.
During the Spring of 2022, Elijah will be conducting a teaching internship in the lab. Along with another intern, Elijah will be one of the instructors for Research Methodology I.
Tatiana Rodriguez
Teaching Intern
Junior, Dominican University of California
Tatiana also joined the lab through the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research Methodology Program. She is interested in performing artificial evolution experiments on fungal pathogens.
During the Spring of 2022, Tatiana will be conducting a teaching internship in the lab. Along with another intern, Tatiana will be one of the instructors for my section of Research Methodology I.
Alison White
Research Assistant
Sophomore, Dominican University of California
Alison also joined the lab through the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research Methodology Program. She is participating in infectious disease PCR assay testing and characterization of the skin microbiome of woodland salamanders. Alison is interested in becoming a genetic engineer.
Amber Del Rosario
Graduate Research Assistant
Post-bacc, Dominican University of California
Amber is an independent study student performing research on the distribution of E. testavorans and microbiome characteristics in California's only native pond turtle, the western pond turtle. Amber is using DNA assays to identify the presence of the pathogen and bacteria that are part of their shell and gut microbiomes.
Natalie De La Cruz
Senior, Dominican University of California
Natalie joined the lab through the NSM Research Methodology series as a transfer student. Natalie is helping characterize the skin microbiome of terrestrial salamanders. She is evaluating characteristics of the microbiome across populations that experienced intense wildfires during the fall of 2020.
Madison Gianetto
Junior, Dominican University of California
Madison also joined the lab through the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research Methodology Program. She is interested in testing the use of new infectious disease PCR assays for California herps.
Reuben Oumnov
Senior, Dominican University of California
Reuben is an independent research student in bioinformatics. Reuben is helping evaluate the effect of MHC class IIB genes on the gut and skin microbiomes of frogs. Reuben is using tools such as QIIME2 and R to process the DNA sequencing data and perform biostatistics.
Lubna Mulla
Senior, Dominican University of California
Lubna is an independent research student in genetics. Lubna is helping extract DNA from turtle samples, running PCR/qPCR infectious disease assays, and helping with microbiome sequencing library preparation.
Fernanda Galo
Sophomore, Dominican University of California
Fernanda joined the lab as a volunteer. She helped gather data for a bioinformatics project. Now she is helping process samples for DNA sequencing. Fernanda wants to go to medical school after college.
Carl Hermes Castillo
Graduate Research Assistant
Post-bacc, Dominican University of California
Carl is an independent research student in the lab. Carl's project deals with evaluating how Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis reacts to long-term exposure to antifungal therapies. Along caring for fungal cultures in the lab, Carl will be performing artificial selection and genome sequencing experiments to evaluate genomic changes associated with antifungal resistance in fungal pathogens.
Interested in joining the team?
I am currently looking for undergraduate researchers to partake in the independent research projects. Please contact me if you are interested in participating!
Former Lab Members
Shannon Buttimer
PhD student at the University of Alabama
Shannon and I collaborated on a woodland salamander skin microbiome project while she was an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. Shannon collected skin microbiome samples, extracted DNA, and characterized microbial communities using 16S rRNA sequencing from the skin of terrestrial salamanders. In addition, we cultured bacteria from the salamander skin and tested its anti-fungal potential. This work was part of her senior thesis project.
Today, Shannon is a PhD student in Dr. Gui Becker's lab at the University of Alabama where she works on Brazilian amphibian skin microbiomes.
Ricardo Moctezuma
University of California, Berkeley
Ricardo volunteered his time to help with immunogenetics work in the laboratory as an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. He was involved in a project that is evaluating the effect of MHC genotype on the skin microbiome of wood frogs. He helped tremendously with DNA extractions and amplicon sequencing library preparation.
Ardith Wang
UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine
Ardith leaded a hellbender eDNA project when she was an undergraduate researcher at Purdue University. We sampled hellbender streams throughout the eastern US to evaluate for the presence of hellbenders. She also used 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing to characterize eukaryote diversity within streams. Ardith is a co-author on a peer reviewed paper.
Chelsea Martin
Dominican University of California
Chelsea was a student intern characterizing the distribution of (tetrodotoxin) TTX bacteria across numerous toxic amphibians. Chelsea used the bioinformatics skills she learned in BIO3200/3205 (Advanced Genetics) to perform her research. She is interested in a career in physical therapy or neurosciences.
Fernanda Galo
Dominican University of California
Fernanda joined the lab as a volunteer. She helped gather data for a bioinformatics project. Fernanda wants to go to medical school after college.
Carissa Tinoco
University of California, Berkeley
Carissa volunteered her time to help in the field and laboratory as an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley. She gained valuable experience in DNA extractions, PCR set up, and electrophoresis. Carissa is also a great artist. She has been awarded a creative internship with NASA! Check out her personal website at: carissatinoco.com
Montana Campbell
Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine
Montana's project used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing to investigate population genetics diversity among a population of eastern box turtles in Indiana. She compared mtDNA diversity to that of previously documented biparentally inherited markers of the same population. Montana was co-advised by Obed and Dr. Steve J.A. Kimble at Purdue University.
Xitlaly Santos
Dominican University of California
Xitlaly helped collect turtle microbiome samples in the field and evaluated the antifungal potential of bacteria derived metabolites. Xitlaly was a research student and technician in the lab.
Today Xitlaly is a lab scientist at LabCorp!
Hailey Cambria
Dominican University of California
Hailey helped collect microbial samples from salamanders in the field, isolate bacterial species and performing challenge experiments on Bd with metabolites extracted from these bacteria. Hailey was a research student and technician in the lab.
Hailey is applying to dental school and she also works as a dental assistant at a clinic in her hometown.