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
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..
Rebecca Knoll, MD
Rebecca attended Medical School at the University Medical Center of the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany. She completed her Medical Doctoral Thesis through a joint project with the pediatric immunology and infectiology department at Mainz and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, focusing on the gut microbiome in children with inflammatory bowel disease.
She has completed 4.5 years of clinical training as a pediatric resident at the Children's Hospital of UMC Mainz. Since 2022, she has worked as a computational physician at the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, primarily analyzing large clinical studies in cystic fibrosis and preterm microbiome development. To delve deeper into early-life microbial colonization, Rebecca joined the Lynch lab to compile large datasets and develop machine learning algorithms.
To balance her sedentary work life, Rebecca loves outdoor activities, especially skiing, biking, running, and hiking.
Jawara Allen, MD, PhD
Jawara is an Infectious Disease fellow with a focus on caring for immunocompromised patients. Originally from Raleigh, NC, he completed his undergraduate studies at Duke University before moving to Baltimore for his MD/PhD training at Johns Hopkins. There, under the mentorship of Dr. Cynthia Sears, he investigated how enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) contributes to colon tumor formation.
He then headed west to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he completed his residency in Internal Medicine and continued on as an Infectious Disease fellow. Currently, Jawara is conducting research in the Langelier and Lynch laboratories, where he studies how the upper airway microbiome influences the severity of viral infections and their downstream consequences.
Outside of medicine, he enjoys exploring San Francisco on long walks, as well as baking and experimenting with homemade ice cream.
Graduate Students
Margôt Bacino
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
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
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.
Margareta Mayer
Maggie is originally from Austria, where she earned her Bachelor's and Master's degree in Biology with focus on Molecular Microbiology, Microbial Ecology, and Immunology at the University of Vienna. Fascinated by the human microbiome, she got involved in researching the gut-immune-brain axis in preterm birth for her Master's thesis. Afterward, she studied adaptive immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 at the Department of Virology at the Medical University of Vienna. In 2022, she joined the Department of Neonatology at UCSF, looking at early-life microbial and immune development before transitioning to the Lynch Lab in 2024, where she now investigates maternal microbial exposures and preterm birth for her PhD co-mentored by David Berry in Vienna. Outside of the lab, Maggie enjoys going to art exhibitions, crafting, thrifting, trying out new vegan recipes, and electronic music.
Lea Sedghi
I was born and raised in Macon, Georgia, where I grew up under the influence of both Southern and Persian backgrounds. I graduated in 2016 from Mercer University with a BS degree in Biology and subsequently graduated from Mercer University School of Medicine in 2018 with an MS in biomedical research. My decision to pursue dentistry was seeded by volunteer experiences, which led me to realize the lack of readily available dental care within central Georgia. However, my curiosity and enthusiasm for dentistry grew from appreciating the oral cavity as a unique and dynamic microbial environment.
My interests in microbial ecology and nutrition have defined and continue to define my research career. During my time at Mercer, I studied the effect of dietary fiber on the oral microbiome of mice in a collaborative project under the guidance of Dr. Ryan Jennings, Dr. Craig Byron, and Dr. Laura Suh. I am continuing my previous work at UCSF where I am studying the role of dietary fiber in shaping the oral microbiome in the context of periodontal disease under the direction of Dr. Yvonne Kapila and Dr. Susan Lynch. Outside of lab, I enjoy running, hiking, skiing, and paddle boarding. I have played piano for over 20 years and enjoy playing for friends and family. I am passionate about cooking and love to experience new cultures through food and travel.
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.
Kameron Sugino, PhD
Kameron received his Bachelor's in Biochemistry from UC Riverside and his PhD in Nutrition from Michigan State University. His graduate research focused on the maternal/infant microbiome and how infant microbiome development relates to environmental exposures, diet, and intergenerational obesity. After attending MSU, Kameron completed a postdoc at the University of Oklahoma, where he investigated the relationship between dietary treatment of gestational diabetes and alterations to microbiome composition and function. In the Lynch lab, Kameron continues to investigate the maternal/infant microbiome in the context of allergic airway diseases. After hours, Kameron enjoys cooking, boardgames, sleeping, and other indoor activities--though he can be convinced to venture outdoors in the presence of good company.
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 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.
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 Interns
Justin Coles, B.S.
Justin is a postbaccalaureate scholar in the Bay Area RaMP program, conducting research on the human microbiome. He graduated from the University of Maryland - Baltimore County (UMBC) with a degree in Individualized Study focused on biostatistics. Justin has gained research experience at UMBC, the National Cancer Institute, NIH, and the University of Southern California, where he studied environmental health and air pollution. His research interests lie in applying quantitative methods to understand drivers of health outcomes and inform equitable solutions.