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Meisel Group Members





Rich Meisel
Associate Professor
Department of Biology and Biochemistry
University of Houston

rpmeisel <at> uh <dot> edu






Graduate Students

Interested in joining the lab?

We accept graduate students through the
Ecology and Evolution and
Cell and Molecular Biology
degree programs.


Danial Asgari

Danial is studying the effect of bacteria on gene expression in flies and the evolution of the innate immune system.



Carolynn Porter

Carolynn is studying the evolutionary and population genomics of the house fly sex chromosomes.



Farnam Ghaem-Maghami

Farnam is studying the effects of house fly proto-Y chromosomes on male mating behavior.





Undergraduate and Post-baccalaureate Students


Want to join the lab? Students can earn course credits, work-study salary, or an honors thesis.




Rami Alakeel (2021)

Arsalan Baig (2021)

Jackie Clendening (2021)

Olivia Dratler (2020-presentt)

Miguel Elizarraras (2021)

Michelle Hua (2021)

Sara Loetzerich (2020-present)

Cyrus Lopez (2019-present)

Alex Mai (2021)

Luis Moyano (2021)

Mohammad Shahzad (2021)

Yasim Zafar (2021)





Alumni

Staff and Postdocs

Pablo Delclos, PhD (2019-2021)
Pablo was a postdoc in the lab who studied behavioral differences between house flies with different sex determining genotypes. He continued on to a tenure-track position at the University of Houston-Downtown.

Christopher Gonzales - Technician (2014-2016)

Melissa Li - Technician (2014)


Graduate Students

Kiran Adhikari, PhD (2016-2021)
Kiran studied the maintenance of polygenic sex determination in house fly. He continued on to a postdoctoral position with Brian Lazzaro at Cornell University

Zhao Zheng (2020-2021)
Zhao was a masters student who studied population genomics of Drosophila pseudoobscura.

Jae Hak Son, PhD (2014-2019)
Jae used functional genomics to study how the house fly sex determination pathway and sex chromosomes affect gene expression. He continued on to a postdoctoral position with Serap Aksoy at the Yale School of Public Health.

Bukola Oguntuase (2016)
Bukola visited our lab from the University of Technology in Akure, Nigeria. She used molecular markers to study the population structure of the flat-headed cusimanse

Jose Torres Gonzalez (2016)
Jose was a rotation student in the Biochemistry program who studied the mating performance of house fly males with different sex determining genotypes

Shuo Zhang (2014)
Shuo was a rotation student in the Ecology and Evolution graduate program who studied house fly sex chromosomes

Cameron Love (2014)
Cameron was a rotation student in the Cell and Molecular Biolgoy graduate program who studied functional divergence of Drosophila duplicated genes


Undergrads and Postbacs

Sandra Achonye (2014-2015)

Kiran Akbani (2014)

Dalia Aldin (2016-2019)

Hyder S. Aljanabi (2018)

Ali Alshabeeb (2016)

Samantha Andrade (2014)

Brooke Birks (2019-2021), continued on to Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine

Likhitha Bodi (2016-2018)

Quinten Bolden (2014-2015), continued on to UT Health Science Center at Houston School Of Nursing

Jessica Cambric (2018-2020)

Mandy Cao (2019-2020)

Keith Chen (2015-2016), continued on to School of Graduate Studies at Rutgers

Kaylin Gant (2017-2019)

Adrian Garcia (2014-2015), continued on to job in software development

Destini Gorrer (2013)

Margaret Hart (2014-2016), continued on to Baylor College of Medicine

Tomi Hassan (2016-2018), Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholar (2017)

Stephanie Huffman (2019-2020), teachHOUSTON scholar

Jaweria Jaweria (2015-2017), Mindlin Undergraduate Research Fellow (2016) and Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholar (2016)

Elizabeth Joseph (2016)

Lynn Kabbani (2019)

Zena Karagoli (2015-2019)

Aqsa Khan (2016-2018)

Tylia Kim (2018-2019)

Tammie Lam (2018)

Mai Le (2019-2020)

Ashley Lee (2015-2017), continued on to Prairie View A&M Nursing School

Lesley Lerma (2021)

Eduardo Lopez (2018)

Hoang Luu (2015-2016), continued on to graduate school at Ohio University

David Marroquin (2020)

Anna Matuk (2019-2020)

Shifa Merchant (2021)

Carli Miller (2019)

Theo Ng (2014-2015)

Dieu Ngo (2021)

Tin Nguyen (2019-2020), teachHOUSTON scholar

Taylor Nunley (2018-2019)

Casey Oakes (2015-2016), continued on to Houston Department of Health and Human Services

Alexander Oderhowho (2016), continued on to medical school at UT Health Science Center

Samantha Pacheco (2018)

Heather Payne (2014-2015)

Rebecca Presley (2019-2020)

Ashley Sanchez (2016)

Edwin Santiago (2015), continued on to MD Anderson Medical Dosimetry program

Raina Saxena (2015), continued on to Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at UNT Health Science Center

Bineta Sonko (2020)

Vyshnika Sriskantharajah (2016-2018), continued on to technician position at Baylor College of Medicine

Sydney Stephenson (2015-2017)

Taylor Swindell (2014)

Jessica Tran (2019-2020)

Tammie Trinh (2015-2018), continued on to UT Dental School

Rahul Vanchinathan (2018-2020), Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (2018)

Chantalle Vincent (2019)

Zeel Vora (2016-2017)

Ban Vu (2015-2017), continued on to Doctorate of Pharmacy program at UH

Uyen Vu (2019-2020)

Anugraha Wilson (2019-2020)

Lejla Zoronjic (2014), Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (2014), continued on to UT Dental School