Current Members

Meet the Lab!

Prospective Students: If you are interested in joining our lab, please read through the projects on our website as well as our recent publications, and then, send me an email with your CV, past research experience, and how your current research interests align with the lab. I can accept Ph.D. students through the Anthropology Department at Northwestern University.

Faculty & Staff

Dr. Katie Amato, Lab Director

Dr. Katie Amato is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern

See the bio page for more information on Katie’s academic trajectory and research.

Dr. Maria Luisa Savo Sardaro,  Research Associate

Maria Luisa is interested in studies related to the influence of fermented and non-fermented foods on gut microbiota composition and evolution with the correlation to human health outcomes. After her Ph.D. in Genetics from Tuscia University (Italy), Maria Luisa started her Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Parma University. She worked on the development of molecular biology and microbiological techniques for pathogens and fermentative bacteria identification to promote the diffusion of fermented products with probiotics and prebiotics properties. Meanwhile, she is also an assistant professor at San Raffaele University in Rome. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the art of sourdough fermentation.

Post-Docs and Graduate Students

Sam Degregori, Postdoctoral Researcher

Sam is largely interested in animal gut microbiome diversity and how it varies across the animal kingdom. After completing his PhD at UCLA in 2022, Sam started an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with his current advisors, Dr. Katherine Amato (Northwestern University), and Dr. Rob Knight (UCSD). His postdoc will focus on constructing a large comparative dataset of published gut microbiome data to better understand how host factors shape the gut microbiome. He will also work on generating gut microbiome data on clades of hosts that have received little attention, such as reptiles and insects. Beyond research, Sam can be found catching some much needed Vitamin D somewhere out in the wilderness.

Paula Maia, Ph.D. Candidate

Paula’s research focuses on the political ecology of the gut microbiome. She assesses how global economic forces, such as tourism and market pressures, affect local community-level issues, such as food insecurity and sovereignty, and subsequently impact the gut microbiome and health.

 

Tabor WhitneyPh.D.  Candidate

I hold a B.S. in Biology from the University of Oregon. My current research interests include gut microbial communities, inflammation, health, and conservation. I plan to expand the use of the gut microbiome as a conservationist tool for monitoring the health of non-human primates by finding a gut microbiome unique to primates. In my free time, I enjoy listening to live music, playing sports, and if you can’t find me, I am somewhere outside enjoying nature.

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Anthony PulvinoPh.D.  Candidate

I hold an M.Sc in Biology from the University of Oregon. Broadly, I am interested in host-microbe interactions and how intestinal microbiomes between primate species have influenced their physiology and evolution. My thesis work is centered around how a host’s genome responds to differences in the metabolic potential of intestinal microbes that are specific between primate host species. I hope my work helps the scientific community understand how primate host-specific microbes shape fundamental between-species physiological differences.

Undergraduate Students

  • Stephanie Torrello
  • Esther Ubadigbo
  • Rebecca Wu
  • Jennifer Biak
  • Katerina Claud
  • Annie Chiu
  • Lauren Calderon
  • Doris Toledo
  • Clarence Sanders
  • Gabriel West