HOLLY BIK, Ph.D.
principal investigator
Dr. Holly Bik is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia (with at joint appointment in the Institute of Bioinformatics). She obtained her Ph.D. in molecular phylogenetics at University of Southampton, UK (working with John Lambshead at the Natural History Museum, London, in conjunction with the UK National Oceanography Center). She completed postdoctoral appointments with Kelley Thomas at the University of New Hampshire and Jonathan Eisen at the University of California–Davis. In 2014 she was awarded a Bioinformatics Fellowship at the University of Birmingham, UK.
Aside from research, Holly is heavily involved in science communication and social media, serving as Associate Editor for the popular marine blog Deep-Sea News and maintaining an active presence on Twitter (@hollybik). She has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed articles on the use of social media and online tools in academia, including “An Introduction to Social Media for Scientists” in PLoS Biology and “Ten Simple Rules for Effective Online Outreach” in PLoS Computational Biology.
TIAGO JOSÉ PEREIRA, Ph.D.
postdoctoral scholar
Dr. Tiago José Pereira is a molecular ecologist broadly interested in the study of marine biodiversity, particularly meiofauna/free-living nematodes. Previously, he used benthic meio- and macrofauna to access environmental disturbance in diverse marine and estuarine ecosystems. For his Ph.D., Tiago studied the systematics and phylogenetics of soil and plant-parasitic nematodes. After completing his Ph.D., Tiago worked as postdoctoral researcher in the Baldwin Lab at UC Riverside on an NSF project focused on using rapid methods (i.e. reverse taxonomy and metabarcoding) to characterize soil nematode (Cephalobidae family) diversity in desert habitats. His current research in the Bik Lab focuses on patterns of meiofauna diversity, especially free-living nematodes, in marine sediments from a variety of geographic regions (e.g. Alaskan Arctic, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of California). His research integrates classical taxonomy (i.e. morphology-based) and molecular approaches (i.e. single individual DNA barcode and Illumina sequencing) as well as computational analysis of high-throughput sequencing datasets (e.g., metagenome assembly/annotation, ecological/statistical analyses of environmental RNA amplicons).
Email: Tiago.Pereira@uga.edu
Mirayana Marcelino Barros
Graduate Student
Mirayana Marcelino Barros is a Ph.D. student is Marine Sciences Program at UGA. Her research interests are focused in the biodiversity, evolution and ecology of marine meiofauna, with emphasis on free-living nematodes. During undergraduate program she worked on the ecology of marine benthic meio-and macrofauna in diverse ecosystems including coastline shores, estuaries, and coastal lagoons. Using these organisms as “bioindicators” to evaluate changes on the benthic communities in response to both natural and anthropogenic disturbance events. For her MSc., Mirayana’s research focused on the ecology of marine nematodes in the deep-sea areas of the Gulf of Mexico. She aimed to generate a baseline of the nematode/meiofauna communities from that region that could be used as basis to understand changes in this environment, particularly due to anthropogenic activities (e.g. BP oil spill in 2010). During her Ph.D. program Mirayana propose to develop a research program focusing on the global biodiversity of marine nematodes and incorporating aspects of their ecology, phylogeny, and systematics. Her research aims to integrate classical taxonomy and high-throughput sequencing methods, using a combination of morphological and molecular approaches to inventory the diversity of marine nematodes and to advance our understanding of their ecology, biogeography, and phylogeny.
Email: mirayana@uga.edu
Alejandro De Santiago Perez
Graduate Student
Alejandro De Santiago is a Ph.D. student in the Institute of Bioinformatics Graduate Program at UGA. His current research interests are focused on developing computational workflows for analyzing metagenomic dataset from microbial metazoa. His main focus is uncovering the functional diversity of free-living marine nematodes and their microbiomes. He previously obtained his B.S. in Microbiology from the University of California – Riverside where he was an undergraduate researcher in the Bik Lab. Additionally, he was an HHMI ExROP fellow in the Jez lab at the Washington University of St. Louis where he worked on kinetically and structurally characterizing chorismate mutase, a protein secreted by plant-parasitic nematodes (e.g. Meloidogyne javanica and Heterodera schachtii) during early stages of infection. His other interests include improving science education and making science accessible to the public.
Email: Alejandro.DeSantiagoPerez@uga.edu
Hunter Powell
Graduate Student
Hunter Powell is a Ph.D. student in the Marine Sciences Graduate Program at UGA, co-advised with Prof. Marc Frischer. His current research interests are focused on marine microbial transcriptomics and software development of the novel data visualization framework Phinch.
Email: Hunter.Powell@uga.edu
Curriculum Vitae - PDF Download
Sierra Bartlett
Graduate Student
Sierra Bartlett is a M.S. student in the Marine Sciences Graduate Program at UGA, co-advised with Prof. Patricia Yager. Her current research interests are focused on microbial ecology and eDNA metabarcoding along ice shelves and polynyas (open water areas) on the Western Antarctic Peninsula.
Email: Sierra.Bartlett@uga.edu
Curriculum Vitae - PDF Download
Jenna Brown
Laboratory technician
Jenna Brown is a laboratory technician focused on molecular biology approaches and -Omics sequencing (DNA barcoding, eDNA metabarcoding, and genomic library preps).
Email: Jenna.Brown2@uga.edu
Curriculum Vitae - PDF Download
Former Bik Lab Members
Kira Davis (undergraduate researcher at UGA, 2022-2023)
Jalen Scott (summer NSF REU student at UGA, 2022)
Taruna Schuelke (Bioinformatician and Lab Manager at UC Riverside, 2016-2018) - currently a microbiology Ph.D. student in the Wilbanks lab at UC Santa Barbara
Hannah Kissinger (Graduate Student at UC Riverside and UGA, 2017-2020)
Patricia Holt-Torres (Graduate Student at UC Riverside, 2017-2019) currently a Ph.D. student in the Microbiology Graduate Program at UC Riverside.
Samantha Kuong (SALSA summer undergraduate intern at UC Riverside, 2019)
Christian Udealor (undergraduate researcher at UC Riverside, 2018-2019)
Vanessa Guzman (undergraduate researcher at UC Riverside, 2017-2018)
Amy Hodges (SALSA summer undergraduate intern at UC Riverside, 2017)