Susan Lynch, PhD
Dr. Lynch is the Director of Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine and Professor of Medicine, at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Lynch graduated from University College Dublin and completed her postdoctoral studies at Stanford University. Her laboratory is located in the Division of Gastroenterology, at the University of California San Francisco, Parnassus Campus.
Post-doctoral Scholars
Mustafa Özçam, PhD
Mustafa is a postdoctoral scholar in the Lynch Lab. He is investigating the role of the human microbiome in early-life allergic diseases, including Food Allergies and Asthma. He completed his Ph.D. studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focusing on the functional characterization of gut microbial biosynthetic gene clusters in microbe-host and microbe-microbe interactions. Before joining the Lynch Lab, Mustafa worked as a scientist at DuPont Nutrition and Biosciences, where his role involved in bioprocess development of biotherapeutics for clinical trials.
Kevin Magnaye, PhD
Kevin received undergraduate degrees in Biology and Anthropology at the University of Washington Seattle and a PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. His doctoral studies focused on identifying and characterizing genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying maternal transmission of asthma risk. In the Lynch lab, he is interested in understanding host-microbe interactions in early life and their impact on health and disease throughout the lifespan. He is passionate about basic and translational science as well as outreach and mentorship.
Jacqueline Moltzau Anderson, PhD
Jay is a postdoctoral scholar in the Lynch Lab and a member of the Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. She received her PhD in Germany at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology and the University of Kiel, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan School of Medicine in the USA. In the Lynch Lab, Jay continues to investigate the role of the gut microbiome (composed of bacteria, fungi and viruses) in modulating health and disease, with a particular focus on Inflammatory Bowel Disease and biotherapeutic development. When not in the lab, she loves to swim, hike, explore nature, read, travel, and spend time with her family and friends.
Elad Deiss-Yehiely, PhD
Elad received his undergraduate degrees in Materials Science and Engineering and the Integrated Science Program from Northwestern, and then a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His doctoral studies focused on developing nanoparticle delivery vehicles capable of traversing Pseudomonas aeruginosa- formed biofilms and delivering antimicrobials more efficiently. In the Lynch Lab, he is interested in understanding how microbial metabolites may drive and affect childhood airway microbiome and their response to insults. Outside the lab, he loves being outdoors, whether that is hiking, camping, biking, or just enjoying relaxing outside at a park..
Graduate Students
Margôt Bacino, BS
Margôt Bacino is from San Diego, California and attended University of San Francisco where she completed her B.S. in biology. After graduating, she worked in the lab of Dr. Habelitz studying biomineralization of tooth structures. Her research centers on understanding the role of the healthy oral microbiome in preventing and treating periodontal disease. Outside of the lab Margôt enjoys running, hiking, and reading.
Holly Steininger, B.S.
Holly is a BMS PhD student from Moreno Valley, an arid desert in Southern California. After obtaining a degree in Cellular and Developmental Biology at CSU Fullerton, she moved up to the Bay Area to work in the Chan Lab at Stanford as a CIRM Scholar. There she studied regeneration and developed cellular and molecular biology tools which she plans to use during her PhD in the Lynch Lab to explore how the microbiome and genetics interact to influence disease. She is particularly interested in gasdermin-mediated cell death, and the interaction between microbes and epithelial cells, and inflammation. Her favorite microbe is Moraxella Catarrhalis, and best way to bribe her is with coffee and maple bar donuts. When not in lab culturing cells you can find her at the beach, hiking, eating burritos, and baking.
Chris Bravo, B.S.
Chris Bravo was born and raised in San Jose, California where he obtained his B.S in Molecular Biology from San Jose State University. During his time at SJSU, he conducted research in the Lab of Dr. Cleber Ouverney worked on the characterization of a periodontal-associated bacteria called TM7. As a Ph.D. candidate at UCSF, his research centers on elucidating the association between the oral microbiome and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Outside the lab, he spends most of his time with his family and friends.
Faith Vundla, B.S.
Faith is from Bulawayo Zimbabwe, and she is currently a medical student at Odessa National Medical University in Ukraine. She joined the Lynch lab due to the war crisis in Ukraine and she is passionate about improving patient outcomes through research. In the medical field, she shares an interest in pediatrics or gynecology and in the lab, she focuses on asthma projects and early life microbiomes. I am eager to learn, grow, and contribute to the medical field. Outside the lab, she love to travel, cook, spend time with family and friends.
Staff
Din Lin, PhD
Din is an immunologist with extensive experience in human immunology. He previously worked in the McCune lab examining whether induction of tolerance to SIV in utero and/or orally at birth impacts the course of SIV infection after birth in Rhesus macaques. He has also investigated efficacy of immunomodulatory drugs in SIV-infected Rhesus macaques. Most recently, he has developed an ex vivo assay to test the immunostimulatory capacity of a microbial community. He currently examines immunomodulatory and epigenetic regulatory responses to microbiomes and their products in both humans and mice.
Dirk Tolson, B.S.
Dirk is a Bay Area RaMP Post-Baccalaureate Scholar for the Lynch Lab. He is originally from Antioch, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area. He attended Sonoma State University for his undergraduate where he completed his Bachelor of Science in Statistics with minors in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Spanish. Dirk has had experience in research with Public Health and Epidemiology/Biostatistics modeling with the Mathematical Epidemiology Research Group (MERG), Oceanography and Aerosols statistical analysis with NASA, and Probability and Combinatorics Research with Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute at UC Berkeley. In the Lynch Lab, Dirk will be working with the Maternal Gut Microbiome with Breastmilk in relation to childhood allergies. When not in the lab, Dirk likes to spend time with family and
friends, hike, go to the beach, watch movies, and travel.
Carlos Gomez, B.S.
Carlos graduated from San Francisco State University with a bachelor's degree in microbiology. During his undergraduate years, he conducted research in the Archaea lab, where he was first exposed to the exciting field of metagenomics. Since then, he’s had the opportunity to work at Genentech in the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) department and gained valuable hands-on experience in genomics and NGS technology. Carlos is now a junior specialist in the Lynch Lab and will be working to improve metagenomic sequencing technology (mNGS) by utilizing long reads. This will allow us to dive deeper into microbial genomics and leverage innovative technology to push the boundaries of what's possible in microbiology research. During his free time, you can often find him on the tennis court and exploring serene waters while kayaking. With a passion for science and an adventurous spirit, he hopes to explore new horizons and making meaningful contributions.
Connor Tomaka, B.S.
Connor is a computational microbiome researcher in the Lynch Lab at UCSF, employing ecological theory and advanced computational approaches to delve into the complexities of airway and gut microbiomes. His background in environmental microbial ecology focuses on resource competition and molecular-scale inter-species interactions in microbial communities. He has developed a fascination with unraveling the intricacies of microbial ecology and it's impact on human health.
Punit, Sundaramurthy, M.S.
Punit is a Computational Biologist in the Lynch Lab at UCSF. She completed her master's degree in bioinformatics from San Jose State University where she developed a bioinformatics tool to identify and extract transcription factor binding sites (specifically for motifs with variable gapped regions) in the human and mouse genomes. Some of her prior academic and industry experiences include the benchmarking of taxonomic profiling tools, quantitative and qualitative analyses of amplicon and long read sequencing, pipeline development for metagenomics datasets, and analysis of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics datasets to measure the stability of mice gut microbiomes. In the Lynch Lab, she is studying the effects of the airway microbiome on asthma in children
Student Intern
Allison Li, B.S.
Allison is a student intern in the Lynch Lab and an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. From Orange County, California, her interest in microbiome medicine extends from a range of curiosities and fields, reflecting her dedication to exploring the intersections of science, biotechnology, and healthcare. Outside of the lab, she enjoys baking, reading scientific biographies, and exploring new cities.
