Research Scientist
Ozan Bozdağ
Ozan completed his MS in molecular biology and genetics from Izmir Institute for Technology in 2010, and his PhD in Evolutionary Biology in 2015 from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology under the supervision of Duncan Greig. Here, he firstly investigated the role of oxygen concentration in the evolution of multicellular size. Next, being very much inspired by Richard Lenski’s LTEE, he has started a long-term experimental evolution study by selecting snowflake yeast for larger size under a diverse set of metabolic conditions (i.e. currently at 700+ days of transfers). In 5 (out of 15) populations of this LTEE experiment, macroscopic multicellular size (~1mm in diameter) has evolved (from an ancestor of 30 micron). He is currently examining these populations from an evolutionary genomics perspective. By analyzing sequenced genomes of individuals from this experiment, he is studying the genetics behind the macroscopic snowflake yeast phenotype, and investigating how differences in population size between small and large multicellular clusters of pops. change the number and spectrum of mutations. Besides applying selection on snowflake yeast on a daily basis, he likes running, playing chess, visiting art museums, and enjoys American craft beer culture. P.S. The sentence in the background of this profile pic. explains his philosophy in the lab. nicely.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Anthony Burnetti (Tony)
Tony Burnetti completed his PhD in Genetics & Genomics at Duke University in 2017, studying metabolic cycles in yeast under the supervision of Dr. Nicolas Buchler. His current work involves artificially engineering large size in snowflake yeast via controlled genetic alterations to understand synergistic interactions between group-level traits, and using snowflake yeast as a model to understand the evolution of oxygen metabolism in multicellular organisms. In his spare time he does amateur astronomy, grows sweet potatoes at the Georgia Tech community garden, and rants endlessly about Kaiju movies.Peter Conlin
Peter Conlin completed his PhD in biology at the University of Washington in 2018 under the supervision of Benjamin Kerr. He is studying how genetic interactions such as sign epistasis change over evolutionary time and extent to which the evolution of multicellularity is reversible.
Graduate Students
Pedro Márquez-Zacarías
Pedro is from the village of Paracho, México. He graduated from the National Autonomous University of México, where he studied Biomedical Sciences and did his research thesis with Valeria Souza. He is mainly interested in 1) How organismal morphology emerges in early multicellularity, and 2) The spatial structure of microbial communities. He is also deeply curious about the epistemology of theoretical biology. In his spare time, he teaches biology to inspiring undocumented students. Incredibly, he plays guitar and chess. Credibly, he likes real tacos and cheap beer.
Kai Tong
Kai earned his undergraduate degree in biological sciences from Fudan University, China, and joined the lab as a Ph.D. student in Quantitative Biosciences in 2017. Due to COVID-19, Kai has been unable to return to the US and is currently working with Prof. Juha Saarikangas, a collaborator at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where he is studying the evolution of cell differentiation in macroscopic snowflake yeast, using single-cell sequencing and quantitative fluorescent microscopy. He is also using a modeling approach to understand the origin of cell differentiation and multicellular development. In his spare time, Kai likes to play tennis and badminton, enjoying superhero movies, and diving into books on topics ranging from history, philosophy, to architecture and science fiction.
Katie MacGillivray
Katie MacGillivray received a Bachelor’s in Chemistry from Harvard in 2014, and a Master’s in Biology from NYU in 2017. She joined the Quantitative Biosciences PhD program at Georgia Tech in 2019, where she is co-advised by Will Ratcliff and Brian Hammer. In the Ratcliff lab, she studies the early evolution of aggregative multicellular organisms, and in the Hammer lab, she studies the ways that bacteria can defend themselves against attacks by the Type VI secretion system. Katie enjoys culturing microorganisms so much that she grows mushrooms in her spare time.
Rozenn Pineau
Rozenn is from a tiny two-house village in the heart of Britanny, France. There she fed a love for nature and the desire to help our understanding, to add a little dust in the brick which is building our wall of knowledge. She started her Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences in 2018 and fuels her passion for plants with evolutionary questions. She notably explores the evolutionary history of the Pando clone, a giant clonal forest in Utah. She fills her free time with melodies, climbing routes, and delectable readings.
Autumn Peterson
Autumn received her undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences from Virginia Tech in 2020. She is now a PhD student in the Biology Program at Georgia Tech. In the Ratcliff lab, she is currently looking at turning yeast phototrophic, specifically looking at how rhodopsin can increase overall fitness. Outside of the lab her interests include: working out, playing piano, and exploring the city. Her favorite show is Avatar the Last Airbender and favorite food is seafood.
Undergraduate/High School Researchers
Daniella Haas
Daniella is a third-year Biology student at Georgia Tech following the Pre-Health and Business Certificate pathways. She is currently examining the relationship between age and cellular differentiation in yeast. In this project, she has co-developed a machine learning pipeline to automatically age cells based on fluorescence. Her previous work focused on how cellular ploidy affects the evolution of novel multicellular traits. Outside of researching, she volunteers with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and enjoys spending her free time petting dogs and drawing.
Vivian Cheng
Vivian is a third-year undergraduate student majoring in biology and minoring in history. She is interested in age-dependent cellular differentiation and is currently co-developing a machine learning approach to determining replicative age in yeast cells. Outside of school and lab, she is a part-time rock musician and full-time dinosaur fan.Ghazal Mirzazadeh
Ghazal is a junior at Atkins High School in North Carolina. She is collaborating with Pedro on a theoretical project aiming to better understand how spatial structure emerges from social interactions in biofilms.Outside of school, she is an environmental advocate with the Green Schools campaign, a 3rd-degree black belt in taekwondo, and loves to play volleyball and kickbox.
Saranya Gourisetti
Saranya is a second year Biology student at Georgia Tech following the Pre-health pathway. She is currently working with Peter and Harley on analyzing the impacts of taking Ozan’s long term experimental evolution and looking at the dynamics of reversion to unicellularity. Outside of lab, she likes to watch cooking shows, read books, and go on walks.
Harley Yopp
Harley is a second-year majoring in Biology with an emphasis in Biomedical Science and minoring in Psychology at Georgia Tech. She is currently working with Peter and Saranya to explore the dynamics of multicellular reversion to unicellularity. Outside of research, she enjoys going to concerts, exploring the nature around, and watching a bit too much Netflix and movies
- Hope Hazelton, undergraduate researcher
- Alireza Zamani, Ph.D. student(currently senior scientist at GenoTwin In.)
- Penny Kahn, technician (currently a Ph.D. student, Leander Lab at University of British Columbia)
- Jennifer Pentz, Ph.D. student (currently a postdoctoral researcher at Umeå universitet)
- Margareth Murphy, undergraduate researcher (currently Ph.D. student, Lindo Lab, Emory University)
- Jordan Gulli, Ph.D. student (currently at New England Biolabs)
- Jillian Walker, Master student
- Leslie Townswell, Master thesis (currently Masters Research Assistant, Yager Lab, University of Georgia)
- Parimala Devi, Master student (currently a Bioinformatician at the Netherlands Cancer Institute)
- Troy von Beck, technician (currently Ph.D. student at Emory University)
- Joshua Borin, post-bac researcher (currently Ph.D. student, Meyer Lab at University of California San Diego)
