Members of the Saier Lab

Professor/Head of laboratory

Dr.  Saier established the main research lines of the lab and coordinates/guides all lab members and projects. His expertise in a wide range of biological fields allowed the creation/maintenance/curation of  the Transporter Classification Database (TCDB) and the publication of about 600 peer-reviewed papers.

Scientist/Molecular Biology

Dr. Zhang joined the Saier Lab in 2001. He has vast experience on multiple areas such environment-induced mutations in bacteria, transcriptional/metabolic regulation, protein/protein interactome and bacterial growth laws. As a supervisor, he guides students, visiting scholars and oversees all research activities in the wet lab.

Kevin joined the lab in spring, 2016, as an undergrad majoring in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Thanks to his expertise in Bioinformatics and Structural Biology, Kevin has contributed to multiple projects. His Master’s thesis is about the refinement of bioinformatic techniques to better classify families/superfamilies and improve structure/function predictions.

Andrew joined the lab in July, 2017, as an undergrad with major in Molecular Biology. For his Master’s project, Andrew is investigating how the expression of a metal ion efflux gene cluster in the bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans can be influenced by insertion elements and the three-dimensional structure of the DNA.

Harry joined the lab in March, 2018, as an undergrad majoring in Human Biology. He is expanding his original project for his Master’s degree, which seeks to elucidate the molecular mechanism following IS5-insertion into the fuc regulon in Escherichia coli.

Peter joined the lab in July, 2019, as an undergrad majoring in General Biology. His Master’s project is to determine the effect DNA binding proteins have on transposition frequency into the bgl operon in Escherichia coli.

Jianing joined the lab in October, 2019, as an undergrad majoring in Bioinformatics. He has participated in two bioinformatics projects. Currently, he is working on his Master’s project about the comparative genomics of viral genomes from the order Nidovirales with emphasis in family and functional associations.

Aditi joined the lab in April, 2020 as a Microbiology major undergrad. She has contributed to two comparative genomics projects. In her Master’s project, she collaborates with another student to study the relationship between the LIC family and the VIC superfamily using sequence-based and 3D structural-based approaches.

Madison joined the lab in August, 2020, and her major is Human Biology. She has contributed to two bioinformatics projects. In her currently project, she collaborates with another student to study the relationship between the LIC family and the VIC superfamily using a 3D structure-based approach.

Farah joined the lab in October, 2020. She is double majoring in pharmacological chemistry and chemical engineering. As our wet lab assistant, her efforts contribute to multiple experimental projects in the lab.

Ahmed joined the lab in October, 2020. His major is General Biology and Global Health. In his wet lab project, Ahmed designs experiments to investigate the role of c-di-GMP in the regulation of the FlhDB operon of Escherichia coli during stationary phase.

Charlene joined the lab in April, 2021, and an undergrad and her major is Global Health. She is working on a comparative genomics study involving endosymbionts of amoebas and clams.

Hunter joined the lab in April, 2021, and his major is Biology and Bioinformatics. Hunter will apply his software development skills to several bioinformatics projects in the dry lab, including superfamily characterization/expansion and comparative genomics.

Vince joined the lab in April, 2021. His major is Molecular and Cell Biology. Vince is contributing to the project where we study the relationship between ABC uptake systems and ABC2 export systems. This includes the characterization and relationships between the different components of ECF uptake systems.

Dr. Meng joined the lab in October, 2020.  She is working with two other undergrad students on collecting evidence to determine whether the LIC family, which includes GABA receptors, is a distant member of the VIC superfamily.

Nicole joined the lab in March, 2021.  She completed her BSc in General Biology. Nicole is contributing to three comparative genomics projects involving 1)  four Metagenome Assembled Genomes from  the bacterial Candidate Phyla Radiation group; 2) six sulfate-reducing bacteria; and 3) eight endosymbionts of amoebas and clams.

Professor/WLU Canada

Dr. Moreno-Hagelsieb took a sabbatical leave in our lab in 2015 as a bioinformatics specialist. Since then, he continues to collaborate with us in multiple projects involving Comparative Genomcis, Superfamily characterization/expansion, and the creation of novel annotation/curation pipelines for TCDB.

MD/St. Clare’s Denville Hospital

Dr. Reddy is our current database developer for TCDB. Over the years, he has contributed to multiple projects in the dry lab, including the adaptation of the ChEBI ontology to transported substrates in TCDB, characterization and expansion of superfamilies, characterization of transportormes, and comparative genomics.

Professor/LACCD

Dr. Reddy has collaborated with the lab multiple times over the years in projects ranging from famiiy/superfamily characterization and evolution, psychobiotics and their impact in mental health, the relationship between autism and the microbiome, the realtioship between eating meat and epidemics, and more.

Professor/ASU Egypt

Dr. Aboulwafa has visited us several times and has collaborated with our wet lab  on a variety of topics, including  transport of sugars and vitamins, regulation of crp gene expression,  protein-protein interactions, and  more.

Alumnus/Illumina

Pranav joined the lab in 2016 as an undergrad majoring in Bioinformatics. He developed and improved web applications and  stand-alone programs to help our research efforts in the dry lab. As a student, he contributed to several projects and continues to collaborate with the Saier lab.

Alumnus/Boston University

Yichi joined the lab in 2017 as an undergrad majoring in Bioinformatics and Environmental Chemistry. He developed several programs to help our research efforts in the dry lab. As a student, he contributed to several projects and continues to collaborate with the Saier lab.

Alumnus

On June 23, 2021, Dennis obtained his Master’s degree by defending the thesis: The effects of global and specific DNA-binding proteins on transcriptional regulation of the bgl operon.

Alumna

Mai joined the lab in September, 2020, as an undergrad. During 10 months, 1) she curated ABC  systems in TCDB; 2) she studied the relationship of the ABC LptBFG family to ABC type 2 systems; and 3) in collaboration with other students, she studied the relationship between the S and T subunits within ECF systems.

Alumnus

On January 28, 2021, Daniel obtained his Master’s degree  by defending the thesis: Discovery and characterization of the Phospholemman/SIMP/Viroporin (PSV) superfamily.

Alumnus

On March 19, 2020, Steven obtained his Master’s degree by defending the thesis: Comparative Metagenomic Analyses of Transporters Within the Archaeal Superphylum, Asgard.  (Published results). In addition, his experience allowed him to contribute to the curation of information in TCDB.

Volunteer

Cassidy joined the lab in July 2019 as a  volunteer undergrad. She used bioinformatic techniques to characterize the transportome of the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfobacterium autotrophicum HRM2.

Scientist/Pakistan

Dr Khan joined our lab in 2018 as a visiting scholar. As part of her PhD, she worked for a year on the use of the CRISPR/Cas9 system for the generation of disease-resistant plants. She developed most of the protocols of the CRISPR/Cas9 system in our lab.

Scientist/Iran

Dr. Heidari joined the lab in 2017 and spent over a year doing research as part of her PhD. She worked on two projects: the characterization and comparative genomics of transportomes within the genus Bdellovibrio, as well as an experimental study of a riboflavin transporter in Bdellovibrio exovorous JSS.