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Present
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Elizabeth Fitzpatrick
Elizabeth is a Biology major in her Sophomore
year. Since she started as a work study in the Caron Lab she has become proficient in several analytical techniques
including the use of Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent
Assays (ELISAs) to detect algal toxins (eg, domoic acid) in seawater
and marine organisms.
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Gloria Song
Gloria
is a Biology Freshman and recently joined our lab as a work study. Her
work focuses on the examination of protistan community structure based
on morpholgy. Gloria quickly developed the necessary skills on the
microscope and the ability to distinguish between a wide variety of
protistan taxa.
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| Past |
Lauren Farrar
Lauren volunteered to work within several of our projects in the past.
This year she graduated from USC with a double
Major in Biology and Cinematography all the while directing a
documentary
feature on
toxic Pseudo-nitzschia blooms and
their impact on coastal marine mammals and seabirds in the Los Angeles
Area.
The documentary 'In Harm's Way' was produced with help by the USC
Wrigley
Institute for Environmental Studies. Lauren has moved to New York to pursue a career
producing nature documentaries - we have no doubt she will be
successful! (left: Lauren during
her interview with Mammal Collection
Manager
James Dines from the Natural History Museum in LA). |
Edward Tran
Ed is a Biochemistry major who became interested in protistan ecology
through participation in the USC Fall Catalina Semester. He
is a student volunteer and contributes to a variety of projects in the
Caron lab. Currently, he is working on isolating
and culturing grazers to use for experiments that will explore food-web
dynamics. He is also involved with other projects
that employ molecular applications such as PCR, electrophoresis, and
cloning and sequencing |
Heming Xu
Heming Xu is triple
majoring in biological sciences, neuroscience, and art history. He is
currently working on a qPCR technique for the genus Phaeocystis with Peter Countway.
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Jeff
Loh-Doyle
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Sarah Moy
Sarah Moy is a Biology Major and she is currently working on her
individual
directed research project focusing on algae physiology. Sarah examines
the impact of varying
Vitamin concentrations on growth and/or toxin production of the
dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedra.
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Billy Pan
Billy Pan conducted individual directed research projects on
potentially toxic members of the
diatom Pseudo-nitzschia
and volunteered several semesters to participate in HAB related
research. He investigated the impact of nutrient stress and trace metal
limitation
on natural populations of Pseudo-nitzschia.
Billy's participation in HAB related projects was multifold and also
included analyses of pico- and microplankton community structure using
flow cytometry and light microscopy. His major is BioMedical
Engineering and his interest is to pursue a career in medicine.
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 Patrick
Vigil
Patrick worked in the Caron lab since the fall of 2003 on numerous
aspects of the USC Microbial Observatory research project. He also
worked on
an individual directed research project studying the ecology of the
smallest known eukaryote, Ostreococcus. He gained proficiency in
standard techniques used in the Caron lab
including; culturing of protistan isolates, flow cytometry based
counting of protistan cultures and molecular techniques including DNA
isolation/purification, PCR, electrophoresis and both fragment analysis
(T-RFLP) and cloning/sequencing of PCR-amplified genes. Patrick was
awarded the Okin Scholarship by the Department of Biological Sciences
at USC for his outstanding work in both the lab and the classroom.
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Karoline Tum
Karoline became interested in working in our lab after she spent the
fall semester of 2005 as a Catalina Semester student. She is currently
a work-study student, and is assisting with analyzing samples via flow
cytometry and microscopy.
Vanessa
Sippel
Vanessa was a REU student in the lab this summer. She was working on a
project involving the effect of temperature on several species of
Antarctic protozoans. She was an undergraduate at Scripps College.
Brian Strachan
Brian volunteered in the Caron lab since the fall of 2003 on various
aspects of the USC Microbial Observatory research project. In the
course of this work he had gained proficiency in standard molecular
techniques used in the Caron lab including PCR and electrophoresis.
Brian’s future career goal is to pursue an advanced degree in the
health sciences.
Natalea Branden
Natalea was a work study in the lab during the spring of 2002. She
performed various lab duties including helping to maintain the
temperate culture collection. She is currently in pharmacy school at
USC.
Erica Brauer
Erica Brauer worked in the Caron lab during 2003-2004, participating in
many aspects of our research program. Erica worked with our temperate
protistan culture collection, preparing culture media as well as
maintaining and transferring cultures on a monthly basis. Additional
work included single-cell picking and isolation from the USC Microbial
Observatory plankton tow samples for direct lysis and subsequent
amplification by PCR. The molecular work included general PCR
amplification of the 18S rRNA genes from environmental DNA samples and
electrophoresis of PCR products on agarose gels. Erica spent the spring
2004 semester on Santa Catalina Island as part of USC’s Catalina
Semester at the Wrigley Marine Science Center.
Erin Cooper
Erin was a volunteer student in the lab from the fall of 1999 to the
spring of 2001. She completed a project examining mixotrophy by the
heterotrophic flagellate Pedinella. Erin won the USC SCynergy Award in
2001. Erin is currently a graduate student in larval biology at the
University of Oregon.
Carlos Teuscher
Carlos Teuscher spent a year working in the Caron lab, participating in
many aspects of routine lab-work and most importantly in the processing
of the USC Microbial Observatory microplankton samples. Microplankton
sample processing involved performing counts of various categories of
Lugol’s stained protists (diatoms, dinoflagellates and ciliates) on an
inverted light microscope. Additionally, Carlos cataloged and organized
numerous protistan photomicrographs acquired from various research
projects in the lab. Carlos is a recent graduate of USC (May ’04) and
plans on pursuing an advanced degree in environmental law.
Neil Vora
Neil was a REU student during the summer of 2003, and a volunteer in
the lab during Fall 2003 and Spring 2004. His project involved the
isolation of Antarctic bacteria and examining the effects of
temperature and prey type on the growth rate and gross growth
efficiency of an Antarctic protozoan. Neil won the Dean Joan Metcalf
Schaefer Scholarship Award in 2003 and the USC Renaissance Scholar
Prize in 2004. He is currently a med student at UCSF.
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