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.
Reuben Oumnov
Graduate Research Assistant
MS Biology Student, Dominican University of California
Reuben is a first year master's 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.
Elijah Costley-Trigueros
Research Assistant
Senior, 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
Research Assistant
Senior, 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 Intern
Junior, 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.
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.
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.
Katya Morales
Sophomore, Dominican University of California
Katya is majoring in biology and planning on minoring in chemistry. She is thinking about studying medicine and possibly genetics in the future. Katya joined the lab through the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research Program.
Emily Vu
Senior, Dominican University of California
I joined Dr. OHG's lab through the DU NSM Research Program as a transfer student. In the future, I hope to become a family nurse practitioner and I am excited to learn more about herpetology during my time in this lab!
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Jamiee Nguyen
Sophomore, Dominican University of California
I am a biology major with minors in chemistry and global public health! My career goal is to become a physician's assistant with either a specialty in pediatrics, dermatology, or emergency medicine. I am very excited to join the OHG Lab, especially meeting the new Research Methodology group and experiencing being in the field this fall!
Micuel Madison
Sophomore, Dominican University of California
Micuel joined the lab as through the Natural Sciences and Mathematics department Research Program. He will be helping with data collection in the laboratory and field.
Azan Yousaf
Sophomore, Dominican University of California
I am a current sophomore on the pre-med track. This will be my first year partaking in OHG Lab. I am excited to do microbial research, and I would like to focus my research on host and parasitical interaction. I believe that research from that topic can support us in better understanding bacterial characteristics and affix that research into medicine.
Jadyn Jamora
Sophomore, Dominican University of California
I am Jadyn Jamora, a current sophomore with hopes of going into pre-med. I was fascinated with microbiology and heard that Dr. OHG’s lab studies bacterial characteristics. In understanding bacterial characteristics and their evolution can further our understanding into medicine.
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
University of California, Berkeley
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 Penn State 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.
Dr. Ardith Wang DVM
Purdue University
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.
Today, Ardith practices veterinary medicine in San Jose, CA.
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.
Amber Del Rosario
Dominican University of California
Amber was a post-bac and 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 used using DNA assays to identify the presence of the pathogen and bacteria that are part of their shell and gut microbiomes.
Amber completed her post-bac December 2021 and is currently applying to Medical School.
Lubna Mulla
Dominican University of California
Lubna was an independent research student in genetics. Lubna helped extract DNA from turtle samples, running PCR/qPCR infectious disease assays, and helping with microbiome sequencing library preparation. She also trained other students (Fernanda Galo) in the lab.
Lubna completed her bachelors in May 2022 and is currently applying to Graduate School
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
Dr. Montana Campbell DVM
Purdue University
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.
Today Montana is a veterinary intern at Purdue University Vet School.
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.
Carl Hermes Castillo
Dominican University of California
Carl was an independent research student in the lab. Carl's project dealt 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.
Carl will completed his post-bac May 2022 and is currently applying to Medical School.
Natalie De La Cruz
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 helped evaluate characteristics of the microbiome across populations that experienced intense wildfires during the fall of 2020.