Labs, Centers, and Facilities

Biology Education Research Lab

Biological Learning, Natural Selection, Matter and Energy Transformation, Biological Reasoning, Evolution Acceptance, Student Belonging in Biology, Active Learning in Biology, Misconceptions in Biology, Measurement Tools for Biology Education, Impact of Teaching Assistants on Biological Learning

Gena Sbeglia, Ph.D.

Cardiopulmonary Biology Laboratory

Viral Immunology, Myocardial Research, Dilated Cardiomyopathy, Actin Filament Proteins, Signal Transduction, Akt/PKB Signaling, Cardiac Protection, Gene Therapy for Heart Failure, Myocardial Regeneration, Effects of Vaping

Mark Sussman, Ph.D.

Laboratory for Animal Behavior Research

Ecology, Behavior, and Evolution, Integrative Approach to Animal Ecology at Multiple Levels of Biological Complexity, Fundamental and Applied Questions Refined by Field Experiences, Focus on Reptiles, Amphibians, and Small Mammals Based on Natural History Knowledge, Preference for Field Work to Understand Natural Systems, Controlled Laboratory Experiments Combined with Extensive Field Observations for Context

Rulon Clark, Ph.D.

Coastal & Marine Institute Laboratory

Aquaculture, Marine Ecology, Coastal Management, Environmental Monitoring, Marine Biotechnology

Luke Milller

Community Ecology & Restoration Lab

Environmental and Biotic Factors Influencing Community Assembly, Trophic Interactions, and the Links between Community Structure and Ecosystem Functions, Understand Natural and Restored Habitats For Conservation and Sustainable Management, Manipulative Field Experiments and Observational Studies to Explore the Direct and Indirect Interactions Between Plants, Insects, Microbes, and Other Organisms in Evolutionary and Ecological Contexts

Nicholas Barber, Ph.D.

Computational Biotechnology Research Group

Systems Biology, Computational Metabolic Modeling, Genome-Scale Computational Tools, Eukaryotic Microorganisms, Organelle-Specific Gene Annotation, Net-Zero Bioproduction, Isolation of Novel Microorganisms, High-Throughput Cultivation Methods, Bioremediation, Model-Driven Strategies for Microbial Cultivation, Microbial Community Characterization, Microbiome Analysis, In Situ Genome Sequencing, Metatranscriptomic Analysis, Interspecies Interactions, Quantitative Biology, Sustainable Bioproduction

Cristal Zuniga, Ph.D.

Conrad Prebys Viromics Center

Phage Immunology – Innate Immune Response to Phages, Phage Biology – Phage features, Phage Therapy – Antibacterials

Dwayne Roach, Ph.D.

Conservation Ecology Lab

Impact of Resource and Land Use on Vulnerable Wildlife Populations in Terrestrial and Marine Environments, Exploration of Coupled Human-Natural Populations and Systems, Understanding Complex Relationships Between Human and Ecological Processes, Innovative Field, Quantitative, and Lab-Based Approaches, Advancing Applied Conservation Science.

Rebecca Lewison, Ph.D.

Doc Brock & The Lab

Ecology, Evolution, Physiology, and Behavior of Reptiles on Islands and in Cities, Large-Scale Field Studies, Behavioral Experiments, Genetics and Genomics, Comparative Methods to Understand Organismal Response to Human-Induced Environmental Change, Climate Change and Urbanization

Kinsey Brock, Ph.D.

Donald P. Shiley Bioscience Center

Microbial Metagenomics of Periodontal Disease and its Relationship to Systemic Inflammation, Impact of Childhood Exposure to Coxsackievirus on Postnatal Cardiac Stem Cells and Risk of Heart Failure, Role of Autophagy in Infection (Bacteria, Coxsackievirus, Trypanosoma Cruzi), Role of Autophagy in Inflammation, Aging, and Metabolic Syndrome, Influenza and Innate Immunity, Peptide Modulators of Innate Immunity and Prevention of Infection

Richard Cripps, Ph.D.

Electron Microscope Facility

Provide Instruction in the Use of Microscopes to Students and Researchers, Serve as a Core Resource Accessible to Students and Researchers, Increase the Use of Microscopes in Science Classes

Ingrid Niesman, Ph.D.

Flow Cytometry Facility

Cell sorting, Purification of rare cell populations, DNA content (cell cycle, proliferation), Enumeration (phage, microbial), Stem cell identification, Apoptosis, Necrosis, Viability, Intracellular antigens, Immunophenotyping, Imaging coupled cytometry

Carrie House, Ph.D.

Global Change Research Group

Effects of Global Change, Elevated Atmospheric CO2 and Associated Climate Change, Structure and Function of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Feedbacks from Terrestrial Ecosystems to Atmospheric and Global Change, Arctic Ecosystems, Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems, Carbon Dioxide Losses from Arctic Regions in Alaska Russia and Iceland, Elevated CO2 Effects on Mediterranean Vegetation in Italy And California, Natural CO2 Springs, SDSU MedCO2 RE Facility, Sky Oaks Biological Field Station, Ecosystem Dynamics, Water Vapor Flux, Energy Balance of Individual Plants

Walter C. Oechel, Ph.D.
Donatella Zona, Ph.D.

Hedin Lab

Arachnids, Species Delimitation, Evolution in Caves, Mygalomorph Spiders, Phylogeography, California, Opiliones, Phylogenomics, Appalachian Mountains, Taxonomy, Conservation Prioritization

Marshal Hedin, Ph.D.

House Lab

Understanding Mechanisms Supporting Cancer Progression, Therapy Resistance, and Disease Relapse, Role of Tumor Microenvironment and Cancer Stem Cells in Survival and Drug Resistance Pathways, Ovarian and Breast Cancer Research, Cutting-Edge Experimental Approaches Including Tumorsphere Culture, Imaging Flow Cytometry, High-Content Imaging, Next-Generation Sequencing, and In Vivo Models, Interdisciplinary Collaborations with Bioinformatics, Engineering, and Chemistry, Partnerships with Physician Scientists Focused on Women's Cancers, Identifying Novel Targets to Inhibit Cancer Progression and Prevent Recurrent Disease.

Carrie House, Ph.D.

Kalyuzhnaya Lab

Impact of Climate Change on Environment, Health, and Economy, Increasing Temperatures, Rising Sea Levels, and Severe Storms, Reduce Fossil Fuel Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Role of Methane as a Key Greenhouse Gas, Understanding Microbial Traits for Methane Capture, Development of Sustainable Technologies to Convert Greenhouse Gases into Next Generation Chemicals and Fuels, Characterization of Essential Elements for Microbial Methane Utilization, Engineering Novel Microbial Systems for Greenhouse Gas Capturing.

Marina Kalyuzhnaya, Ph.D.

Kevin J. Burns Lab

Genetic Data to Investigate Systematics and Population Genetics of Birds, Phylogenies and Population History Analyses, Study of Evolution of Morphology, Plumage, Behavior, Ecology, and Biogeography

Kevin Burns, Ph.D.

Lipson Lab

Soil Microbial Ecology Research, Factors Determining Composition of Soil Microbial Communities, Impact of Microbial Community Structure and Growth Kinetics on Biogeochemical Processes, Effects of Climate Change, Invasive Plants, and Anthropogenic Disturbances on Soil Microbial Communities, Feedback of Microbial Responses to Ecosystem and Global Processes

David Lipson, Ph.D.

Lluvia Flores-Rentería Lab

Collaborative NSF-Bridging Ecology and Evolution Project on Scarlet Monkeyflowers, Investigating Evolutionary Rescue in Response to Rapid Environmental Change, Goals to Quantify Natural Selection in Contrasting Environments, Assess Breeder’s Equation for Trait Evolution, and Determine Likelihood of Evolutionary Rescue Based on Genetic Variation, Resurrection Study Comparing Ancestors and Descendants from Severe Drought and Heat, Evolution of Reproductive Systems in Plants and Ecological Consequences, Climate Change Impact on Reproduction and Heat Stress Adaptation, Reticulate Evolution and Hybridization Studies in Various Plant Groups, Resilient Restoration with Tribal Communities in Southern California, Training on Edible Native Plants and Sustainable Practices.

Lluvia Flores-Renteria, Ph.D.

Luallen Lab

Microbial Diversity, Coevolution Between Microbes and Hosts, Interactions Between Natural Microbiota and Animals, Caenorhabditis Elegans as a Model for Studying Microbial Colonization, Role of Host Genetics in Microbial Interactions, Ecological Sampling of Novel Microbes from Wild Nematodes, Comparative Genomics, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Microscopy, Computational Techniques for Microbial Study, Discovering New Methods to Manipulate Host-Microbe Interactions for Human and Animal Disease Treatment

Robert Luallen, Ph.D.

Marine Conservation Ecology Lab

Investigating Processes Controlling Abundance and Diversity of Animal Life in Nearshore Habitats, Field and Lab Experiments, Mathematical Modeling in Coastal Oceans, Role of Habitat Structure in Biodiversity, Animal Behavior, and Ecosystem Function, Effectiveness of Coastal Nursery Habitats like Seagrasses and Rocky Reefs, Ecological Relationships Among Organisms in Kelp Forests Including Spiny Lobsters, Sea Urchins, and Abalone, Processes Controlling Abundance and Distribution of Invasive Species.

Kevin Hovel, Ph.D.

Miller Lab

Bivalve Biosensors for Estuary Water Quality Monitoring, Cost-Effective Metrics for Living Shorelines, Climate Change Effects on Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning, Context-Dependency of Herbivore Impacts on Marine Primary Producers, Mussel Gaping Behavior and Physiology, Black Oystercatcher Predation on Rocky Shore Communities, Development of the Open Wave Height Logger.

Luke Miller, Ph.D.

Mission Trails Regional Park

Mission Trails Regional Park, SDSU Collaboration, Coastal Sage Scrub, Native Grassland, Chaparral, Riparian Vegetation, Educational Resource, Conservation Goals, Biodiversity, Research Opportunities

Roach Lab

Phage Immunology, Innate Immune Response to Phages, Phage Biology, Phage Features, Phage Therapy, Antibacterials

Dwayne Roach, Ph.D.

Rohwer Lab

Coral Research, Microbial Interactions in Coral Reefs, Coral Disease Dynamics, Cystic Fibrosis Microbial Dynamics, Bacteria and Phage in CF Airways, Viral Metagenomics, Phage Outreach Program, High School Science Engagement

Forest Rohwer, Ph.D.

Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve

Southern California Ecosystems, Protected Research Sites, Riparian Corridor, Coastal Sage Scrub, Southern Mixed Chaparral, Biodiversity Conservation, Upland Habitats, Scientific Research Program, Education and Outreach

Schrankel Lab

Developmental Biology, Immunology, Cellular Defense Systems, Embryonic Development, ABC Transporters, Gut Epithelia Interactions, Commensal Microbes, Pathogenic Microbes, Primordial Germ Cell Lineage, Transgenic Sea Urchin Embryos, Human Cell Lines, Regulation of ABC Transporters, Function of Membrane Proteins, Impact of Pollutants on Transporters, Gut Immunity, PGC Development, Animal Adaptation, Evolutionary Implications, Human Health

Catherine Schrankel, Ph.D.

Scott Kelley Lab

Application and Development of Bioinformatics Methods for Analyzing Molecular Datasets from Microbial Communities, Phylogenetic Methods, Compositional Data Analysis, Statistical Analysis, and Machine Learning to Study Bacterial, Fungal, and Viral Diversity, Research on Microbial Diversity in the Built Environment, Influence of Moisture and Building Material Composition on Microbial Community Diversity, Growth, and Development Using Deep-Sequencing and Longitudinal Study Designs

Scott Kelley, Ph.D.

SDSU Biodiversity Museum

Morphological Taxonomy, Genetic Phylogenetics of Museum Specimens, Voucher Specimens in Research, Digitization Impact on Museum Collections, Global Specimen Network Analysis, Machine Learning for Biodiversity, Massive Trait Databases in Biodiversity, Conservation Investment in Collections, Biodiversity Museum Expansion, Binational Biological Partnerships

Marshal Hedin, Ph.D.

Segall Lab

Mechanism of Site-Specific Recombination, Integrase (Int) Protein Function, DNA Repair Inhibitors, Holliday Junction Dynamics, Structure-Selective Ligands, Envelope Stress and DNA Damage, Diversity of Marine Bacteriophage, Computational and Bioinformatics Tools for Phage Research

Anca Segall, Ph.D.

Sethuraman Lab

Diversity of Dinocampus coccinellae, Morphological and Genomic Diversity, Evolutionary History, Population Genomics, Bioinformatics Platform Development, Ghost Populations Analysis

Arun Sethuraman, Ph.D.

Shikuma Lab

Bacteria-Animal Symbioses, Contractile Injection Systems, Microbiome Interactions, Biotechnology Applications, Developmental Biology Integration

Nicholas Shikuma, Ph.D.

Sky Oaks Field Station

Ecosystem Carbon Balance, Fire Ecology, Climate Change, Chaparral Vegetation, Eddy Covariance Towers, AmeriFlux Network, Natural Wildfires, Prescribed Burns, Biodiversity Conservation

Soil Ecology and Restoration Group

Ecosystem Dynamics of Dry Lands, Theoretical Analyses of Fundamental Processes and Structures, Applied Research in Dry Land Restoration, Soils, Below Ground Processes, Arid Ecosystems, Semi-Arid Ecosystems, Microbial Ecology, Plant Microorganism Relationships

Thomas Zink, Ph.D.

Sukumaran Lab

Computational Evolutionary Biology, Process-Based Statistical Models, Evolution Across Space and Time, Molecular Data, Geological Data, Environmental Data, Ecological Data, Morphological Data, Physiological Data, Phylogenetic Analysis, Evolutionary Graphs, Ancestor-Descendent Associations, Historico-Geographical Perspective, Spatial Distribution of Organisms, Geographical Population Connections, Microevolutionary Processes, Macroevolutionary Processes, Speciation, Biogeography, Host-Parasite Dynamics, Community Assembly

Jeet Sukumaran, Ph.D.

The Cripps Lab

Basic Mechanisms of Muscle Development Using Drosophila Melanogaster, Fruit Fly as a Model Organism for Homologous Muscle Formation Processes in Vertebrates, Combination of Genetics, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, and Simple Behavioral Assays in Research

Richard Cripps, Ph.D.

The Zayas Lab

Stem cells and tissue regeneration

Ricardo Zayas, Ph.D.

Tijuana River National Estuary Research Reserve

Tijuana River National Estuary Research Reserve, US Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA, California State Parks, Salt Marsh Restoration, SDSU Field Station, Habitat Research, Coastal Ecosystems, US-Mexico Border, Ecological Studies

Tod Reeders lab

Biodiversity of Amphibians and Reptiles, Species Delimitation and Speciation, Phylogenetic Inference, Historical Biogeography of Western North America and Central America, Evaluation of Species Richness Patterns Using Macroecological and Macroevolutionary Approaches.

Tod Reeder, Ph.D.

Viral Information Institute

Viromics and Metagenomics, Ecosystem Health, Human Health, Viral Dark Matter and Biotechnology, Personalized Medicine, Computational Science Resources, Discovery of Viral Pathogens

Waters Lab

Evolution of Stress Tolerance in Plants, Boechera Genus Research, Stress Response Mechanisms, High Heat Stress in Plants, Oxidative Stress in Plants, Comparative Transcriptomics, Gene and Genome Evolution, Pseudogene Evolution, Lowly Expressed Genes, Heat Shock Proteins, Evolution of Heat Shock Response, Selective Pressures on Heat Shock Proteins, Origin of Land Plants, Molecular Adaptations in Terrestrial Plants, Evolutionary Analysis of Small Heat Shock Proteins

Elizabeth Waters, Ph.D.

Zeller Lab

Evolution Of The Neural Crest, Larval Peripheral Nervous System Development, MicroRNA Function, Model For Alzheimer’s Disease, Tool Development

Robert Zeller, Ph.D.

Zona Lab

Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Cold Season Emissions, Coral Reef Carbon Fluxes, Arctic Tundra Ecosystem Dynamics, Multi-Factorial Manipulations, Remote Sensing in Ecosystem Analysis, Spatial and Temporal Ecosystem Changes, Agriculture and Sustainability, Peat Loss Mitigation, Water Table Management in Agriculture

Donatella Zona, Ph.D.

Ecological Modeling and Integration Lab

Land-Atmosphere Interaction in Earth System Models, Data Synthesis, Ecological Modeling, Data-Model Integration, Mathematical Approaches to Climate Change, Training Global Change Ecologists at San Diego State University

Xiaofeng Xu, Ph.D.

Monkkonen Lab

Breast Cancer, Tumor Microenvironment, Autophagy, Endothelial Cells, Fibroblasts, Molecular Biology, Flow Cytometry, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Chemotherapy Response

Teresa Monkkonen, Ph.D.