Seth is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology & Cell Biology at Montana State University. His research focuses on infectious diseases, microbial ecology of the human gut, evolution and population genetics.

Email: seth.walk@montana.edu

Qian is working to understand the in vivo relevance of microbial metabolisms of arsenic and other toxic metals. She is an expert in molecular biology and is generating mutant bacteria with known microbial metabolisms for gnotobiotic experimentation.

Email: qian.wang2@montana.edu

Lu is an outstanding biochemist interested in metal detoxification by both mammalian and microbial cells. She has advanced mass spectroscopy skills and experience working in a CLIA-certified setting. Her arsenic speciation work has established new gold-standards for the field.

Email: luwang1087@gmail.com

Nick has an M.S. in Microbiology and joined the Walk Lab to assist with data visualization and analysis. Nick is involved with pretty much every project and contributes to the lab’s growing number of in-house Python and R codes.

Email: nickvpinkham@gmail.com

Jenna is a Junior/Senior in Biotechnology (Animal Systems option). She’s working on several Walk Lab projects including bacteriophage isolation from wastewater and phylogrouping/genotyping of E. coli from human volunteers.

Email: jennajbarron@gmail.com

Sue managed the Walk Lab for 8 years. She also led several projects examining Clostridioides difficile isolates from clinical specimens collected at medical centers around the US. This involved testing for the presence of C. difficile using culture and PCR, conducting cell-culture-based cytotoxin assays, and PCR ribotyping. Sue is now happily retired and raising a new puppy.

Mark’s expertise is in vivo experimentation. He spearheaded the Walk Lab’s germ-free and gnotobiotic mouse program, which he and Dr. Walk initiated at MSU in 2012.

Paul graduated in 2019 from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology Ph.D. program. He spearheaded our SARS-CoV2 wastewater surveillance program in Gallatin County, MT and SARS-CoV2 genomics project. Paul is currently working for Oxford Nanopore Technologies.

Email: pbgvanerp@gmail.com

Brittany studied the role of microbial metabolites in host gastrointestinal health and disease. Her project focused on tryptophan-derived indole compounds and how they may ameliorate inflammatory bowel diseases. In addition to using traditional cell culture and murine models to measure intestinal epithelial responses to different indole compounds, her project utilized a complex tissue culture system called human intestinal organoids (HIOs). HIOs are small, three dimensional spheres of intestinal tissue differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells and represent a novel model system for advancing fundamental and applied biomedical research. Brittany is now an associate clinical trial manager.

Jonathan studied antimicrobials that remove plasmids (small non-chromosomal DNA) from bacteria, which often carry antibiotic resistance genes. He also studyied how human intestinal organoids (HIOs) can be used as a model of human intestine.  The primary focus of his dissertation research was the temporal population dynamics of the human microbiome, including members of the Enterobacteriaceae. Jon completed a postdoc at the University of Minnesota in the lab of William Harcombe and is currently conducting postdoctoral studies at UC Berkeley.

Ben helped develop novel tools to study the molecular cross-talk between mammalian and microbial cells. His project interfaced between cell biology, bioengineering, and microbial ecology with the primary goal of developing a robust microfluidic, culturomics pipeline for identifying the specific micoorganisms that produce bioactive compounds in the mammalian gut. Ben’s interest in mushroom farming eventually got the better of him and he now runs a highly successful small business in the Bozeman area, bringing premium-grade mushrooms to the leading culinary establishments.

Mike studied how microbes living in the human gut protect us from exposure to ingested arsenic. His research focused on determining the extent to which the gut microbiome can protect the host from chronic or acute arsenic exposure and what mechanisms underlie this protection. Mike was a postdoctoral fellow at the FDA in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research with Paul Carlson Jr. and is now a Microbiome Scientist with the FDA.

Email: michael.coryell@gmail.com

Stephanie is interested in Immunology and host response to infection and disease. She was involved in arsenic detoxification studies in 2015.

Email: steph.schneider92@gmail.com

Stephen “Skip” received his MS in Microbiology & Immunology in 2015 and is now pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Regina (Canada!). His Master’s research was on human intestinal organoids and how Escherichia coli strains could colonize/infect the intestinal epithelium.

Email: daseingp@me.com

Arielle received her undergraduate in Microbiology in August of 2015 from MSU. She was part of a variety of projects while in the Walk Lab, but her primary research focus was the characterization of Escherichia strains isolated from the campus duck pond. Arielle received an INBRE-funded undergraduate research scholarship to conduct this research. She is a recent graduate of the Master’s of Public Health Program at Tufts University.

Anna graduated from MSU in May 2015 with a BS degree in Microbiology, focused on Environmental Health. Anna had a collaborative project with Arielle Potter to look for cryptic Escherichia clades present in the campus duck pond.  Anna received an INBRE scholarship to conduct her research. She collected and processed hundreds (!) of environmental samples and thousands (!) of bacterial isolates for DNA extraction, PCR, and sequencing. After graduation from MSU, she became a Registered Environmental Health Specialist, and obtained a Master’s of Public Health (magna cum laude) from the University of Montana. She didn’t stop there (!), and is currently enrolled in the Montana Medical Laboratory Science Program.

Kaitlyn finished her BS degree in Nutritional Science and a minor in Biochemistry in May 2015. She has worked in the Walk Lab since May of 2014, with funding from Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Kaitlyn’s project was focused on the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. She is currently working in Bozeman as a Physical Therapist Aide and is involved in an NIH-funded neuroscience project on the MSU campus. She plans to apply for Physician’s Assistant school this coming fall.

Thayne graduated from MSU in 2018 in Chemical and Biological Engineering. His research project in the lab focused on molecular typing of Clostridium difficile strains using PCR ribotyping and multilocus variable tandem number repeat analysis (MLVA). Thayne also conducted antimicrobial susceptibility testing on a number of clinical isolates. Thayne is currently interning at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Sequim, WA), where he is conducting research on algal biofuels.

Trisheena was an undergraduate researcher in the lab and helped characterize a large set of Clostridioides difficile strains for the presence of toxin genes. She’s currently in the Microbiology Master’s degree program and doing GREAT!

Email: trisheenakpe@gmail.com