lead head
Daniel Becker, Principal Investigator
Daniel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. He received his PhD in ecology from the University of Georgia, followed by postdoctoral research on pathogen spillover at Montana State University and by an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellowship on animal migration and infectious disease at Indiana University. He is a National Geographic Explorer, member of BOHRN, and a co-PI for the NSF-funded Viral Emergence Research Initiative Institute.
Interests: zoonoses, environmental change, mathematical models, ecoimmunology, animal movement, macroecology
email, CV, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Publons, he/him
postdoctoral researchers
Amanda Vicente-Santos, Postdoctoral Researcher
Amanda is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biology, working on comparative studies of bat innate immunity as part of our NSF BII with VERENA. She has studied Neotropical bats for over 15 years as a model system for host–pathogen coevolution and anthropogenic impacts, using a combination of fieldwork, molecular methods, spatial analysis, and theory. As a Fulbright Scholar from Costa Rica, Amanda received her PhD from Emory University before joining OU.
Interests: disease ecology, host–pathogen coevolution, ecoimmunology, anthropogenic impacts
email, twitter, ResearchGate, she/her
Amanda Vicente-Santos, Postdoctoral Researcher
Amanda is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biology, working on comparative studies of bat innate immunity as part of our NSF BII with VERENA. She has studied Neotropical bats for over 15 years as a model system for host–pathogen coevolution and anthropogenic impacts, using a combination of fieldwork, molecular methods, spatial analysis, and theory. As a Fulbright Scholar from Costa Rica, Amanda received her PhD from Emory University before joining OU.
Interests: disease ecology, host–pathogen coevolution, ecoimmunology, anthropogenic impacts
email, twitter, ResearchGate, she/her
Molly Simonis, Postdoctoral Fellow
Molly is an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research focuses on cross-species transmission dynamics of DNA and RNA viruses in co-roosting Neotropical bats as well as the health and immunology of North American bats. Before coming to OU, Molly completed her PhD at Wright State University, where she researched how long-term pathogen exposure impacts host ecology and physiology using big brown bats and white-nose syndrome as a model study system.
Interests: wildlife health, disease ecology, ecoimmunology, bat conservation, trait changes
email, website, twitter, GoogleScholar, ResearchGate, she/her
Molly Simonis, Postdoctoral Fellow
Molly is an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research focuses on cross-species transmission dynamics of DNA and RNA viruses in co-roosting Neotropical bats as well as the health and immunology of North American bats. Before coming to OU, Molly completed her PhD at Wright State University, where she researched how long-term pathogen exposure impacts host ecology and physiology using big brown bats and white-nose syndrome as a model study system.
Interests: wildlife health, disease ecology, ecoimmunology, bat conservation, trait changes
email, website, twitter, GoogleScholar, ResearchGate, she/her
graduate students
Lauren Lock, PhD Student
Lauren is a PhD student in the Department of Biology. She is interested in how wildlife disease dynamics differ between fragmented and well-connected habitats. Her PhD research investigates this topic using metagenomic and serology methods in Neotropical bats, focusing on our Belize system. Prior to OU, Lauren earned her BS in Biology and MS in Bioinformatics from Juniata College. Lauren previously worked in a clinical laboratory as a technician and quality manager.
Interests: wildlife disease ecology, molecular biology, microbiology, landscape ecology, infectious diseases
email, twitter, ResearchGate, she/her
Lauren Lock, PhD Student
Lauren is a PhD student in the Department of Biology. She is interested in how wildlife disease dynamics differ between fragmented and well-connected habitats. Her PhD research investigates this topic using metagenomic and serology methods in Neotropical bats, focusing on our Belize system. Prior to OU, Lauren earned her BS in Biology and MS in Bioinformatics from Juniata College. Lauren previously worked in a clinical laboratory as a technician and quality manager.
Interests: wildlife disease ecology, molecular biology, microbiology, landscape ecology, infectious diseases
email, twitter, ResearchGate, she/her
Taylor Verrett, PhD Student
Taylor is a PhD student in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. She received her BS in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University, where she studied avian malaria, and then worked with birds locally and in the Galápagos as a research technician. Before coming to OU, Taylor did her MS on bat–bat fly associations at Western Kentucky University. Her PhD research focuses on the interactions between migration, urbanization, and infectious disease dynamics in wild songbirds.
Interests: disease dynamics and ecology, molecular ecology, urban ecology, host–parasite associations
email, twitter, ResearchGate, she/her
Meagan Allira, MS Student
Meagan is a MS student in the Department of Biology. She received her BS in Microbiology from Colorado State University, where she worked on developing intestinal epithelial cell lines of Artibeus jamaicensis, before leading rodent surveys with USDA APHIS and phenological studies of Myotis volans with CSU. Her MS research will focus on the seasonality of and relationships between innate immunity and viral (co-)infection in migratory TABR at western Oklahoma maternity roosts.
Interests: immunology, virology, bat migration, coronaviruses, transmission dynamics
email, website, twitter, she/her
research staff
Kristin Dyer, Research Technician
Kristin is our jack-of-all-trades research technician. She earned her BS in Wildlife Biology from Texas State University and has since worked with bats, herpetofauna, and wildlife diseases, including bat projects in Texas and Wyoming, Texas endemic snake monitoring, and radio-telemetry of Burmese pythons in the Everglades. At OU, she leads our TABR sampling, assists with additional fieldwork and laboratory analyses, and studies TABR migration timing using radar.
Interests: bat and herpetofauna conservation, disease ecology, invasion ecology, fungal pathogens, animal movement
email, twitter, she/her
Bret Demory, Seasonal Technician
Bret assists with seasonal bat and sparrow research in Oklahoma. He earned his BS in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation from California State University, Sacramento. He has worked with various wild bat, bird, reptile, and fish species.
Interests: wildlife conservation
email, he/him
honorary lab members
Alexis Heckley, PhD Student
Alexis is a PhD student at McGill University in the Department of Biology. Her dissertation investigates effects of parasitism and evolution on host dispersal and disease dynamics in stickleback fish. Alexis received her BSc from the University of Alberta and then worked with bats as a technician in Canada and Panama. For her MSc internship, Alexis worked on a meta-analysis of how parasitism covaries with deforestation in Neotropical bats and is now expanding this work further.
Interests: deforestation, Neotropics, zoonotic pathogens, infectious disease dynamics, dispersal, personality
email, website, lab, twitter, she/her
Briana Betke, PhD Candidate
Briana is a PhD candidate in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Texas in Austin. She received her BS in wildlife conservation and management from the University of Arizona, where she worked on endocrinology and pathogen surveillance in wild ungulates and other large mammals. Her PhD research focuses on impacts of urban environments and synanthropic behavior both on flea-borne pathogens in humans and on global patterns of viral diversity across bat species.
Interests: disease ecology in wildlife and humans, urban ecology, OneHealth, environmental change
email, website, lab, twitter, she/her
undergraduate researchers
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Gracie Hedgpeth (she/her)
Department of Biology & Sociology Interests: disease ecology, animal behavior, conservation, public health Gracie is working under the Provost's UReCA Fellowship on amphibian pathogens in Oklahoma and is assisting with bat haemosporidian analyses. Anushka Sukhadia (she/her)
Department of Biology Interests: microbiology, public health, virology Anushka majors in Biology and Microbiology and is interested in zoonotic pathogens. She is analyzing migratory bat samples for Bartonella infection. Mackenzie Hightower (she/her)
Department of Biology Interests: animal health, animal behavior, virology Mackenzie is assisting with field and molecular studies of herpesvirus and coronavirus infection in migratory Mexican free-tailed bats in Oklahoma. |
AJ Santos (he/him)
Department of Biology Interests: virology, human health AJ is studying alphacoronavirus evolution and phylogenetics, with an eye towards bat viruses and their role in human viruses such as HCoV-229E. Sydney Austin (she/her)
Department of Biology Interests: ornithology, evolutionary biology, taxonomy Sydney is assisting with field studies to sample overwintering migratory sparrows across both urban and non-urban habitat types in Oklahoma. Drake Johnston (he/him)
Department of Biology Interests: zoonotic diseases, pathogen characterization, hematology Drake is assisting with hematological surveys of wild bats in Belize, Oklahoma, and Texas as well as of captive Jamaican fruit bats at CSU. |
alumni
Maria Muñoz (she/her, undergraduate): currently a PhD student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Dr. Brian Allan)
Jessie Merrifield (she/her, undergraduate): currently a MPH student at Columbia University (Dr. Maria Diuk-Wasser)
Juliana Nunes (she/her, MSc intern): currently a MS student at the University of São Paulo (Dr. Marcos Heinemann)
Allen Pau (he/him, undergraduate): currently a medical assistant with Makena Pediatrics
Jessie Merrifield (she/her, undergraduate): currently a MPH student at Columbia University (Dr. Maria Diuk-Wasser)
Juliana Nunes (she/her, MSc intern): currently a MS student at the University of São Paulo (Dr. Marcos Heinemann)
Allen Pau (he/him, undergraduate): currently a medical assistant with Makena Pediatrics
interested in joining the lab? find more information here
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