Dr. Merrikh is part of the faculty at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Biochemistry. As a mechanistic biologist and discovery scientist, Dr. Merrikh studies DNA replication, bacterial evolution and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance that span fundamental basic and clinically relevant microbial research.
Past PMB Seminars
For a schedule of all Plant & Microbial Biology events, seminars, and lectures visit our calendar.
Nigel Mouncey: One Small Molecule for a Microbe, a Giant Leap for Natural Products
Dr. Mouncey joined the DOE Joint Genome Institute in 2017 as the fourth Director in its 20-year history. He earned his Bachelor's of Science in Microbiology at University of Glasgow and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at University of Sussex. His team has developed production strains and fermentation processes for other molecules such as a new fungicide, propionic acid and long-chain alcohols, as well...
Seema Lakdawala: Visualizing the Assembly of Influenza Viral RNA
Dr. Seema Lakdawala is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego and completed her postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health. Her lab focuses on emergence of pandemic influenza viruses and uses cutting-edge microscopy...
Christoph Benning: Tsujimoto Lecture: Essential Roles of Plant Lipids in Photosynthesis and Plant Resilience
Christoph Benning is the Director of the Michigan State University Plant Research Laboratory and a University Distinguished Professor. He received his Masters at Albert-Ludwigs Universitaet in Germany and his Ph.D. at Michigan State. Research in the Benning laboratory focuses on lipid metabolism in photosynthetic organisms. One area of particular interest is the assembly and maintenance of the...
Stephen Wright: Y degenerate? The population genomics of degenerative genome evolution
Stephen Wright is a professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto in Canada. He received his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2003, working with Deborah Charlesworth, and did a postdoc at the University of California, Irvine, with Brandon Gaut. His primary research interests concern understanding the forces driving patterns of nucleotide polymorphism and genome...
Eric Skaar: The intersection of nutrition and infection at the host-pathogen interface
Eric Skaar earned his B.S. in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, his Ph.D. in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis from Northwestern University, and his M.P.H. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Northwestern University. His aboratory is interested in identifying the host and bacterial factors that are involved in this battle for metal during the pathogenesis of...
Maureen Hanson: Probing Photosynthesis in C3 Plants
Maureen R. Hanson is the Liberty Hyde Bailey Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics. She received a B.S. degree at Duke University and a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University. Her lab aims to understand the mechanism of RNA editing in chloroplasts and mitochondria of plants, which results in modification of specifics Cs to Us in transcripts, altering...
Paula Welander: Biosynthesis of membrane lipids in the archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius
Paula Welander is a microbiologist who received her undergraduate degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles. She pursued her PhD studies in microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed her postdoctoral studies at MIT in the Departments of Biology and of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. Paula joined the Stanford faculty in 2013 where her current...
Chang Hsien Yang: Functional analysis of genes in regulating perianth identity and development in orchids
Dr. Yang's research interests include the study of the mechanisms controlling flower transition, flower organ formation, flower senescence and male sterility. For his work he has received the Outstanding Research Award from the National Science Council (NSC) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Academic Award and National Chair Professorships from the Ministry of Education (MOE). He...