PI: Dr. Annette R. Rowe (Annie)
I fell into my love of the microbial world at a young age. In my youth being the offspring of two physicians, I found myself fascinated with the microbes (mainly viruses and bacteria) that can wreak havoc on our bodies. However, these pathogens really make up a small (though not unimportant) part of the microbial world. And the unseen majority of microbes can often have profound effects, that are essential to our lives and the health of our planet. Combining this realization with discovering a real love for molecular biology and biochemistry, the pursuit of studying microbes and their metabolism became obvious—because that is where all the crazy cool stuff is happening. The diversity of microbes and their corresponding physiologies or metabolisms (things they eat and breath) are numerous, and I’m pretty sure will keep me busy for as long time.
My research history has been very cross-disciplinary, though my 
focus has always been on the microbial world. I’ve worked in laboratory settings and performed research in Molecular and Cell biology, Ecology and Evolution, Environmental Engineering, Soil Sciences, Marine Ecology, Earth Sciences and most recently Biophysics.
Postdocs:
Josh Sackett
Josh received a Masters for the University of Colorado, Denver, and his PhD from UNLV working with Duane Moser at the Desert Research Institute. He has working on a variety of microbial ecology projects in bioremediation and deep subsurface microbiology including working with the NASA Astrobiology Institute Life Underground team.
Sharanya Sriram
Saranya has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India where her work focussed on electrochemical reduction of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) from aqueous and soil matrices. Subsequently, she joined Gradiant India Pvt. Ltd as a new product development scientist leading the R&D team in developing technologies treating different wastewater matrices. While at Gradiant, she also had the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in commercialising one of her Ph.D. prototypes. After working there for two years, she decided to take up a research position at Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong where she was engaged in enhancing the traditional dark fermentation via application of electric field and using conductive materials. Currently she’s a Post-doc at UC, involved in understanding the mechanism of how electroactive bacteria sense and interact with solid electron donors or acceptors as a means to communicate with the outside environment. Her research interests lie in electrochemically characterizing these interesting bacteria for their mode of electron transfer aiding in the scientific understanding of electrode-microbe interactions and developing advanced bioelectrochemical technologies. In her free time, she loves cooking, shopping and beautifying home space.
Graduate Students:
Leah Trutschel
Although I love most aspects of biology, microbiology is the top tier for me. I spent time as an undergrad in a lab that studied Archaea and fell in love with extremophiles. My interests are primarily in microbial ecology-how microbes act with one another and their environment. My goal is to understand how some of these organisms co-exist and survive in these exceptional places.
When I’m not working with microorganisms, you can probably find me birding.
Jin Sang-Yu
I’m a molecular biologist who was previously working in medical research before joining Dr. Rowe’s lab. I’m primarily interested in how microbes take up and deposit electrons due to my interest in biofuel technology
Mehdi Alibaglouei
The questions like what and how microorganisms periodically led Urmia Lake turn red and orange intrigued me to pursue my study in microbiology program at the University of Tehran. I have spent three years working full-time as a lab researcher, specializing in extremophiles, especially halophile ecology and physiology. I have enjoyed working with research teams from different disciplines during this time. During these years, I have built adept skills at working with Respiratory Activity Monitoring System (RAMOS), optimizing the operation condition in bioremediation system in the miniaturized bioreactor. In 2022, I have jointed to electromicobiology team at University of Cincinnati. My experiences with bacterial growth and energy metabolism, my goal is to study microbial physiology and how extremophiles provide opportunities for biotechnologies like valued energies.
Undergraduates:
Jackson Quinn
Lab Alumni
Postdocs:
Nitin Kamble (2020)- now working as at postdoc at UC medical school
Graduate students:
Linda Vu ( 2022) -working on completing her MS
Undergraduate Students:
Vageesha Herath – pursuing graduate school in chemistry at Emory 2022
Anna Cunnane – starting in UC’s medical school masters program 2022
Ruchita Solanki – started graduate school at U. Calgary 2022
Jorge Vinales – Md/Phd University of Michigan 2020
Alexandra Marquardt – PA school 2019
Edmund Leach – working for Medpace 2019
High School Students
Kayla Betts -started at Washington University, St. Louis Fall 2022
Astrobiology, Bioremediation, Ecology in Microbes, Electromicrobiology, Environmental Microbiology, and Geomicrobiology