Students

Students

Liqi An

Liqi An

  • Animal Biology Graduate Group
Research: Molecular genetics, functional genomics, and bioinformatics in poultry. Major Professor: Huaijun Zhou
Sharissa Anderson

Sharissa Anderson

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
My research interests include beef cattle nutrition and management, sustainable beef cattle production and enteric mitigation strategies to further reduce GHG production and improve performance and efficiency of beef cattle. Major Professor Frank Mitloehner
Bernal Cordoba

Christian Bernal-Cordoba

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Use of research synthesis methods to develop evidence-based antimicrobial stewardship guidelines for cattle. Use of machine learning to improve disease diagnosis on farms and develop accurate and user-friendly treatment algorithms. Currently working on antimicrobial stewardship for calf diarrhea and bovine respiratory disease. Major Professor: Noelia Silva del Rio
Berzoini

Giulia Berzoini

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: My research focuses on young ruminant nutrition, with a particular interest in the formulation and optimization of milk replacers to improve calf growth, health, and long-term productivity. Major Professor: Kelly Nichols
Bhatta

Ravi Bhatta

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: My research interests center on aquaculture production and fish physiology, with an emphasis on improving the sustainability and efficiency of cultured fish species. Major Professor: Jackson Gross
Abdul R Bilal

Abdul Rehman Bilal

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Viral diseases of poultry specifically avian reovirus (ARV) and infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). I am interested in their molecular diagnosis and characterization studies that may help in understanding the epidemiology of these viruses contributing to their control and prevention strategies. Major Professor: Rodrigo Gallardo
Casale

Maria Casale

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interests: Genetics and Immunology applied to animal health Major Professor: Rodrigo Gallardo
Dawn Cayabyab

Dawn Cayabyab

  • Animal Biology Graduate Group
Research Interests: Mammalian pluripotent stem cells, Embryotic development, CRISPR/Cas9, production of transgenic livestock. Major Professor: Elizabeth Maga
Cody

Charlotte Cody

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Bovine stem cells, primordial germ cells, and in vitro gametogenesis. Major Professor: Anna Denicol
De Castro

Francine De Castro

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Surveying and monitoring groundfish populations in Marine Protected Areas, my research interests include the long-term bioaccumulation of Persistent Organic Pesticides (POPs) in groundfish and salmon, and the synergistic effect of POPs with factors of climate change in these study species. Major Professor: Christine Pasparakis
Valerie Done

Valerie (Weizhen) Dong

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interests: I am interested in studying how environmental stress affects organisms at the molecular, cellular, and organismal levels using colonial tunicates as a model. Major Professor: Dietmar Kueltz
Toni Duarte

Toni Duarte

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
  • Animal Biology Graduate Group Student
Research Interests: Meat Quality and Food Safety. Major Professor: Xiang (Crystal) Yang
Dufrense

Alexandra Dufresne

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Swine lactation biology. Gilt late gestation mammary development using histology techniques. Immunochemistry assays and deuterium oxide fluid intake measurements to decrease piglet pre-weaning mortality. Major Professor: Russ Hovey
Dukic

Vukasin Dukic

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research interests are endangered fish species particularly from the ecotoxicological standpoint. Major Professor: Bruce G. Hammock
Duong

Rich Duong

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interests: Usage of agricultural byproducts as a feed additive to reduce enteric methane emissions Major Professor: Matthias Hess
Ayodeji Fagbohun

Ayodeji Fagbohun

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interests: Aquaculture, Fish Nutrition, Fish food quality and Aquatic animal welfare. Major Professor: Jackson Gross
Fletes

Amelia Fletes

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Reproductive physiology using livestock animal models and CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. Major Professor: Anna Denicol
Gish

Perri Gish

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research interests: Fibro-adipogenic progenitor cells are stem cells responsible for extracellular matrix deposition and generation of intramuscular adipocytes in skeletal muscle. Major Professor: Dr. Payam Vahmani and Dr. Lucas Smith
Cirenio Hisasaga

Cirenio Hisasaga

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: The impact that duck and broiler management practices have on bird welfare. Major Professor: Maja Makagon
Ionazzi

Isabella Ionazzi

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Equine assisted reproductive technology, the equine placenta, and embryology. Major Professor: Pouya Dini
Islam

Md. Saiful Islam

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interests: My research focuses on occupational exposure to antimicrobial-resistant bacteria at the human–animal–environment interface, with a particular emphasis on dairy farm workers and the broader implications of resistance transmission for One Health. Major Professor: Xiang (Crystal) Yang
Jennifer Jankovitz

Jennifer Jankovitz

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
  • Animal Biology Graduate Group Student
Major Professors: Elizabeth Maga
Karle

Betsy Karle

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Dairy herd health, antimicrobial stewardship, animal well-being, and management practices. Major Professor: Sharif Aly
Khan

Raja Zabeeh Khan

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interests: Applications of thermography in Donkeys and mules, Blood biochemistry of working equines Major Professor: Amy Mclean
Donna Li

Donna Li

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Quantitative genetics and precision livestock farming Major Professor: Hao Cheng
Li

Kelly (Yutong) Li

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: How life history influences rodent behavior, endocrinology, and metabolism. Major Professor: Gemma (Meng) Zhao
Lobo

Sebsatian Lobo

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Transgenic animal generation and characterization. Gene editing in embryos. Environmental risk assessment of transgenic animals. Major Professor: Elizabeth Maga
Malin

Katarzyna Malin

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research interests are: Equine pregnancy, fetal development, reproductive endocrinology, steroidogenesis Major Professor: Dr. Pouya Dini
Conor McCabe

Conor McCabe

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Methane inhibitors for beef and dairy cattle systems and modeling climate neutrality for the beef and dairy sectors. Major Professor: Frank Mitloehner
Stephanie McDonnell

Stephanie McDonnell

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
  • Animal Biology Graduate Group
Research Interest: Reproductive physiology using the cow as a model. Specifically, preantral folliculogenesis and improved culture systems for preantral follicles. Major Professor: Anna Denicol
Leah Mellinger

Leah Mellinger

  • Animal Biology Graduate Group Student
I am interested in how fish respond to environmental stressors ranging from biotic (such as parasites and pathogens) to abiotic (such as poor water quality and toxicants) and using those responses to map population health and potentially develop management tools for assessing population health. With the increasing threat of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors, developing strategies to assess how fish populations are coping is incredibly important. I am specifically interested in assessing Chinook salmon smolt physiological stress levels during their migration and smoltification as well as assessing forage fish species population health.
Amanda Morton

Amanda Morton

  • Animal Biology Graduate Group
Researching the effect of FSH on isolated preantral follicles collected from bovine ovaries. Major Professor: Anna Denicol
Park

Youngmin Park

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
My research interests include Monogastric Animal Nutrition and Physiology Major Professor: Yanhong Liu
Pearl

Leanne Pearl

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: How to rematriate nur (salmon) on the Winnemem Waywaket (McCloud river) with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe using Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK). Finding the intersection of Western Science and ITEK is something I am excited to be a part of and interested in studying. I am interested in continuing to research natural conservation methods and how we can work more in harmony with the natural state of rivers. Major Professor: Nann Fangue & Anne Todgham
Eleanor Pressman

Eleanor Pressman

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Developing mechanistic models of animal production systems and using these models to identify ways to make animal agriculture more sustainable Major Professor: Ermias Kebreab
Jiayi Qu

Jiayi Qu

  • Animal Biology Graduate Group Student
Linear programming in animal agriculture. Major Professor: Hao Cheng
Alice Rocha

Alice Rocha

Animal agriculture sustainability, using beef and dairy cattle as climate change solutions. Major Professor Frank Mitloehner
Roddur

Quazi Roddur

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
My research interests are broadly involved in the development of statistical and computational methods for the (genetic) improvement of populations through more accurate, efficient, and biologically meaningful analysis. I have focused on the use of genomics, phenomics, pedigree, and other sources of big data in various species to better predict desired traits. Major Professor: Dr. Hao Cheng
Ruelas

Adamarys Ruelas

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
My current research interests include reproduction, endocrinology, and embryology in ruminants. I currently focus on sexual development and differentiation, hematopoietic chimerism, and Anti-Müllerian hormone in small ruminants. Major Professor: Dr. Fauna Smith
Salau

Isiaka Salau

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: I am interested in applying bioinformatics tools and computational approaches, particularly Python-based methods, to study the molecular basis of genetic diseases in horses and other companion animals. Major Professor: Dr Carrie Finno
Arup Sen

Arup Ratan Sen

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
My research focuses on improving microbial protein production in rumen by understanding energy utilization by rumen microbes. Major Professor: Timothy Hackmann
Southall

Logan Southall

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Habitat association of Evening Grosbeak sub-types in the Sierra Nevada Major Professor: Thomas Hahn
Yingxin Su

Yingxin Su

  • Animal Biology Graduate Group
Population genetics and genomics; wild-life conservation. Major Professor: Michael Miller
Sudipta Talukder

Sudipta Talukder

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: Antimicrobial Resistance of foodborne bacteria and Gut Microbiome. Major Professor: Xiang (Crystal) Yang
Erin Tracy

Erin Tracy

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interest: I am broadly interested in the study of both social and ecological aspects of aquatic conservation and in effectively communicating this research to natural resource managers, students, and the public. Major Professor: Dr. Andrew Rypel and Dr. Nann Fangue
Tsonov

Maykal Tsonov

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research interests: I study lipid metabolism in livestock species as it relates to meat quality and healthfulness. I also am interested in how the nutritional profile of cultivated meat compares to that of conventional products. Major Professor: Dr Payam Vahmani

Maykal Tsonov

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research interests are: I study lipid metabolism in livestock species as it relates to meat quality and healthfulness. I also am interested in how the nutritional profile of cultivated meat compares to that of conventional products. Major Professor: Dr. Payam Vahmani
Wayne

Hannah Wayne

  • Animal Biology Graduate Student
Research Interests: Utilizing FSH-beta knockout ram models to study the effects of FSH on libido, scrotal, testicular and semen characteristics, in breeding and non-breeding seasons. Major Professor: Anna Denicol