Principal Investigator



Babak joined the department of biology at Boston College in 2015 as an Assistant Professor. He received his doctoral training in Photonics Research Group (Electrical Engineering) at Georgia Tech, where he designed and implemented compact on-chip photonic demultiplexers. He continued his work at Georgia Tech as a postdoctoral fellow to make spectrometers for biosensing applications. Intrigued by biological systems, he joined Shou lab at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and studied stability and spatial organization of microbial communities in synthetic communities.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Marco Zaccaria
Marco Zaccaria
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Marco Zaccaria

Marco Zaccaria

Before joining the lab in 2016, Marco received his Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences and Master's degree in Ecobiology from the Sapienza University of Rome.  He received a PhD in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology through a joint program with the University of Florence (Università degli Studi di Firenze), where his doctoral work focused on convergent evolution between fungi and cancer.   Marco is particularly interested in microbial evolution and bioremediation.  In his current work, he studies the potential of microbial communities to degrade mycotoxins, which are abundant in the food system.  He enjoys petting cats, reading, traveling, and "most nerdy things".

Graduate Students

Natalie Sandlin
Natalie Sandlin
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Natalie Sandlin

Natalie Sandlin

Natalie is a graduate student at Boston College pursuing her Ph.D in biology. She is interested in molecular microbiology and bioremediation. Currently, she is studying the potential of microbial communities to degrade mycotoxins, common food contaminants. Natalie received her B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Molecular Biology from the University of Dallas in 2018. Outside of lab, she enjoys reading, traveling, and baking.
M. Javad Akbari
M. Javad Akbari
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M. Javad Akbari

M. Javad Akbari

Vaishnavi Warrier
Vaishnavi Warrier
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Vaishnavi Warrier

Vaishnavi Warrier

Vaishnavi is a graduate student pursuing her PhD at Boston College Biology department. She plans to study the microbial interactions of the human nasal microbiota. Her interests are microbiology and protein biochemistry. Vaishnavi pursued her Masters in Biotechnology from Dr. D.Y. Patil University, India. Outside of the lab, she enjoys going on hikes, travelling, music, and dance.

Undergraduate Researchers

  • Paola Rosario Garcia
  • Ethan Rappaport
  • Eric Zhou
  • Leo Deng
  • Alina Chen
  • Joey Zama-Lenfest
  • Luke Maresca
  • Margaret Jiang
  • Lilly Adler
  • Lydia Chen
  • Michelle Kim
  • Philip Chen
  • Olivia Addeo
  • Arushi Katyal

Collaborators

  • Dr. Viviana Cristiglio (ILL, Grenoble, France)
  • Dr. Leonardo De La Fuente (Auburn University, US)
  • Dr. Luigi Genovese (CEA, Grenoble, France)
  • Dr. Shin Haruta (Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan)
  • Dr. Mehdi Javanmard (Rutgers University, US)
  • Dr. Katherine Lemon (Baylor College of Medicine, US)
  • Dr. Yang-Yu Liu (Harvard Medical School, US)
  • Dr. Stephen Lindemann (Purdue University, US)
  • Dr. Takahito Nakajima (RIKEN, Kobe, Japan)
  • Dr. Laura Ratcliff (Imperial College London, UK)
  • Dr. Massimo Reverberi (University of Rome, Italy)
  • Dr. Yoav Soen (Weizmann Institute, Israel) 
  • Dr. David Weitz (Harvard University, US)

Past Collaborators

 
20
  • Caroline Bald; undergraduate researcher
  • Yu Zhu; undergraduate researcher
  • Sydney Sanchez Tejada; undergraduate researcher
  • Alexandra Boehning; undergraduate researcher
  • Jiu Lee; undergraduate researcher
  • Nicole Cho; undergraduate researcher

2022

  • John Kim; undergraduate researcher
  • Nick Stratigakis; undergraduate researcher
  • Alec Lobanov; undergraduate researcher
  • Junqing “Simon” Xu; undergraduate researcher

2021

  • Samantha Dyckman; graduate student
  • Sandra Dedrick; graduate student
  • Helen Kurkjian; postdoctoral researcher
  • Judy Ly; undergraduate researcher 
  • Darius Russell Kish; undergraduate researcher
  • Sixto Taveras; undergraduate researcher
  • Laura Fan; highs chool volunteer

2020

  • Luke Zabotka; undergraduate researcher
  • Sophia Al-Shwauva; undergraduate researcher
  • Rosie Jungquist; undergraduate researcher
  • Paul Baik: undergraduate researcher
  • Madelyn Coleman; undergraduate researcher
  • Leena Rijhwani; undergraduate researcher
  • Kyle Wiant; undergraduate researcher
  • Sarah Ansari; undergraduate researcher

2019

  • Chelsey Skeete; undergraduate researcher
  • Deno Alkurdi; undergraduate researcher
  • McKinley Croteau; undergraduate researcher
  • Yuting Zhang; undergraduate researcher
  • Joy Zou; undergraduate researcher
  • Tianhu (Tony) Chen; undergraduate researcher 

2018

  • Alli DiPietro; high school volunteer
  • Javaris Hart; undergraduate researcher
  • Thaís de Palma; visiting scholar
  • Ian Boland; undergraduate researcher
  • David Fu; undergraduate researcher
  • Nicholas Favazza; undergraduate researcher
  • Lori Niehaus; undergraduate researcher
  • Kevin Chen; undergraduate researcher
  • Catherine Henckel; undergraduate researcher
  • Sayles Day; undergraduate researcher 

2017

  • Minghoa Liu; Undergraduate Researcher, 2015-2017 (Currently: graduate student at UIUC)
  • Stacy Nguyen; Graduate Student (Rotation), 2017 (Currently: graduate student at Boston College, '21)
  • Suyen Espinoza; Graduate Student (Rotation), 2017 (Currently: graduate student at Boston College, '21)
  • Allison Drozda; Graduate Student (Rotation), 2017 (Currently: graduate student at Boston College, '21)
  • Nicole Thornton; Undergraduate Researcher (REU), 2017-2017 (Currently: undergraduate student at University of Miami, '19)
  • Michael Gates; Lab Research Technician, 2015-2017 (Currently: graduate student at Northeastern University, '21)
  • Raymond Lang; Undergraduate Researcher, 2016-2017

2016

  • Matthew Crum; Graduate Student (Rotation), 2016 (Currently: graduate student at Boston College, '20
  • Joshua Linnane; Graduate Student (Rotation), 2016 (Currently: graduate student at Boston College, Biology '20)
  • Melissa Choz; Graduate Student (Rotation), 2016 (Currently: research associate at Synthetic Genomics, San Diego)
  • Kaitlin Chaung; Undergraduate Researcher, 2016 (Currently: lab technician at UCSF)
  • Daniel Beringer; Graduate Student (Rotation), 2016 (Currently: graduate student at Boston College, Biology '19)
  • Joo Yeon (Joon) Choi; Undergraduate Researcher, 2015-2016
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