Thomas Bartlett (Principal Investigator) did his PhD in Zemer Gitai’s lab at Princeton and his postdoctoral studies with Thomas Bernhardt and David Rudner at Harvard Medical School. He enjoys designing screens to discover proteins that bacteria use to grow into different shapes, and then figuring out how those proteins work. His interest in living things extends beyond bacteria – he loves nature, gardening, animals, and has multiple pets and fish tanks. He also likes playing string instruments (violin, mandolin, and guitar), cooking, and fantasy/sci-fi. 

 

Kyung-Tae Park (Research Scientist) did his PhD at the University of Kansas Medical Center with Joe Lutkenhaus. He completed his postdoctoral training and worked as a research assistant professor there before joining the Bartlett lab to study S. aureus. Park has made multiple contributions to the study of E. coli cell division, advancing our understanding of division activation & characterizing the molecular basis of Min system regulation. His favorite activities are walking on the park on weekends, surfing YouTube channels, and reading science articles.

 

Ankeeta Guru (Postdoc) completed her PhD at the Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar, India, in the laboratory of Tushar Kant Beuria. Her thesis focused on the role of protein-drug interactions in E. coli cell division. She now studies cell division and envelope biogenesis in S. aureus in the Bartlett lab. Her favorite activities are cooking, doing embroidery, and reading novels.

 

Raymond Yau (PhD student) holds a master’s degree in biology from George Washington University, where he conducted thesis research on host-microbe interactions in Drosophila. A joint student in the Mantis and Bartlett laboratories, he now studies the intracellular response to antibodies that bind the cell envelope of V. cholerae, to determine how these antibodies impact motility arrest and aggregation.

 

Elaine Gillan (APHL fellow – postbac) completed her bachelor’s at Saint Michael’s College studying Public Health before joining the Bartlett Lab through a fellowship with the APHL. She has previous experience researching antimicrobial resistance with E. coli and P. aeruginosa. Some of her hobbies out of the lab include swimming, running, and watching reality tv!