Susan Lynch, PhD
Susan.Lynch@ucsf.edu
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.Ozcam@ucsf.edu
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.
Jacqueline Moltzau Anderson, PhD
jacqueline.anderson@ucsf.edu
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.deissyehiely@ucsf.edu
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.knoll@ucsf.edu
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.
Kameron Sugino, PhD
Kameron.Sugino@ucsf.edu
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.
Graduate Students
Margôt Bacino, BS
Margot.Bacino@ucsf.edu
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.Steininger@ucsf.edu
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.
Chirs.Bravo@ucsf.edu
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.
Staff
Din Lin, PhD
Din.Lin@ucsf.edu
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.
Faith Vundla, B.S.
Faith.Vundla@ucsf.edu
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.
Carlos Gomez, B.S.
Carlos.Gomez@ucsf.edu
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.
Punit, Sundaramurthy, M.S.
punit.sundaramurthy@ucsf.edu
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
Margareta Mayer
Margareta.Mayer@ucsf.edu
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.
Student Intern
Allison Li, B.S.
Allison.Li@ucsf.edu
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.
Isabella Braga
Isabella.braga@ucsf.edu
Isabella received her B.S. in Microbial Biology from UC Berkeley. She is an NSF-funded RaMP Scholar in the Lynch Lab, studying colonization of the microbiome in early life and its connections to asthma. She is particularly interested in innate immunity and host-microbe interactions. When not in the lab, Isabella can usually be found knitting or reading beside her cats and bunnies, or spending time in nature.