https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/04/handheld-dna-device-finds-illegal-shark-fins/

Flinders University
We are extremely proud of the great work that our post-doctoral fellow, Shaili Johri, has been doing. Her recent publications detail the promise of using MinION to conduct wildlife conservation studies! Great Job Shaili! If you would like to read more about the story please use the two links below.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/04/handheld-dna-device-finds-illegal-shark-fins/
http://newscenter.sdsu.edu/sdsu_newscenter/news_story.aspx?sid=77572
To read the paper use the following link.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-40940-9
Megan Morris defended her PhD dissertation research in Ecology titled “Microbes among marine giants: microbial-macroalgal interactions in southern California kelp forests”. She is moving to the Bay Area to start a post-doctoral position at Stanford University. Congratulations Dr. Morris! The Dinsdale lab wishes you the best luck up north!
Rebecca de Wardt, graduate student in the Cellular and Molecular Biology program successfully defended her master’s thesis titled ‘Phenotype to Genotype: Informing predictive models’. Good luck for your future!
Ecology PhD student Michael Doane defended his dissertation research titled “Insights into the shark ‘holobiont’ through the skin microbiome and host genetics”. Congratulations Dr. Doane!
Congratulations to our PI, Dr. Elizabeth Dinsdale, who was just promoted to a full Professor of Biology! Dr. Dinsdale joined the Biology department as an Assistant Professor in 2009, and since has mentored over 50 undergraduate and graduate students, published over 40 manuscripts, and received numerous grants to support her research. From all your students, we can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
To celebrate the end of another successful academic year, the lab attended the 23rd Annual Biology Banquet held at Mission Trails regional park. At the banquet, PhD student Megan Morris received the department’s Outstanding Teaching Associate Award – way to go!
Undergradute students Rhaya Alkafaji, Dominic Cavalli and Taylor Dillon successfully defended their honors thesis under the guidance of Dr. Dinsdale. Congratulations and all the best for the future!
The Dinsdale Lab was awarded funds from the Council on Ocean Affairs Science and Technology (COAST) Grant Development Program (2018-2019)! The grant will support the lab’s ongoing long-term description of microbial communities in southern California’s kelp forests. The invasive algae Sargassum horneri has recently disturbed the kelp forests, including the pristine locations at Catalina Island, so the ecosystem needs our attention now more than ever!
Read about their amazing research here:
Bhavya Papudeshi: Optimizing and evaluating the reconstruction of metagenome-assembled microbial genomes.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-017-4294-1
Doug Beattie: Novel ssDNA viruses detected in the virome of bleached, habitat-forming kelp Ecklonia radiata.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00441
Jeremiah Minich: Elevated temperature drives kelp microbiome dysbiosis, while elevated carbon dioxide induces water microbiome disruption.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0192772
Come see the Dinsdale Lab and the amazing research that we do in the new Engineering and Interdisciplinary Sciences Complex (EIS 201B). Dinsdale Lab now represents the Conrad Prebys Viromics Center in the EIS complex.