Esther van der Knaap
Principal Investigator, email: Esther van der Knaap
Neda Keyhaninejad
Lab manager
Neda graduated from New Mexico State University in 2012. After a post doctoral position at Ohio State, she moved to Georgia where she is working on the interactions of OVATE with target proteins and plant transformations.
email: Neda Keyhaninejad
Lei Zhang
Post doctoral researcher
Lei received her PhD in 2017 from the Max Planck in Koln, Germany. She is currently working on fruit weight and flavor variation using genomic tools.
email: Lei Zhang
Katherine Hardigree
Greenhouse and genotyping manager
Katherine received her MS in Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics in 2010. Katherine worked at the Georgia Genomics Facility at UGA before joining our lab. She is managing the genotyping, greenhouse and field experiments.
email: Katherine Hardigree
Qian Feng
PhD student
Qian graduated from the University of California, Davis in 2019 with a BS in Plant Sciences. She has research experience in lettuce disease resistance. Qian is currently working on fruit flavor and weight genes in tomato.
email: Qian Feng
Trent McCracken
Masters student
Trent received his BS in Plant Science from Penn State University in 2023. He is working on flavor genes in tomato.
email: Trent McCracken
Yanbing Wang
Post doctoral researcher
Yanbing conducted post doctoral research on plant reproductive biology at the University of Arizona and at Washington University. Yanbing is working on fruit shape in tomato.
email: Yanbing Wang
Tosin Olorunwo
MS student
Tosin completed her BS in Crop Science and Horticulture in 2023 from the Federal University Oye Ekiti, in Nigeria. Tosin is working on the genetic characterization of fruit flavor in tomato.
email: Tosin Olorunwo
Austin Hart
PhD student
Austin graduated from University of Central Florida in 2020 with a BS in Biology. He is interested in the genetic inheritance of tomato volatile production.
email: Austin Hart
Alani Andrews
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Alani is an undergraduate student in Psychology at UGA and plans to go to medical school in fall 2025.
email: Alani Andrews
Ranveer Singh
PhD student
Ranveer is a student with Savithri Nambeesan and often in the lab to present his work on blossom-end rot.
email: Ranveer Singh
Lindsey Curtis
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lindsey is an undergraduate in Ecology at UGA. Lindsey is working with Neda on plant transformations.
email: Lindsey Curtis
Rebekah Maynard
PhD student
Rebekah is a visiting student in the lab who is working on her PhD with Leo Lombardini at UGA. She works on mapping fruit shape genes in our lab.
email: Rebekah Maynard
Emily Nettles
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Emily is majoring in XXX at UGA and plans to go to Dental school in fall 2025. Emily has been helping the lab with tomato harvests and processing in Florida, Athens and Blairsville this summer. Now she is settling in on research related to tomato transformation. Oh, and she is a fast swimmer and runner too!
email: Emily Nettles
Josiah Celestin
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Josiah is majoring in Health Promotion at UGA. Josiah helped with the tomato harvests in Florida, Athens and Blairsville and is interested in the mapping of tomato fruit shape genes. Josiah plans to go to medical school in fall 2027.
email: Josiah Celestin
Mark Lazzaro
Visiting Scientist
Mark is a professor at the College of Charleston and a regular in our lab. He teaches cell biology and in the summer, he often works on projects related to fruit shape. Mark is currently finishing up an extensive image analysis involving calcofluor staining and EdU labeling. Mark signs in the Charleston SC Choir and knows everything about the music scene in Athens.
email: Mark Lazzaro
Past Lab Members
| Name | Current Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Yasin Topcu | Batı Akdeniz Agricultural Research Institute, Antalya, Turkey | yasintopcu1989@gmail.com |
| Manoj Sapkota | Post doc at Breeding Insight | ms3743@cornell.edu |
| Zach Fleming | Graduate student at Univ of Nebraska | zfleming3@huskers.unl.edu |
| Ashley Snouffer | Researcher at Benson Hill | ashley.snouffer@gmail.com |
| Natacha Namphengsone | Researcher at INARI | natnamph@uga.edu |
| Jugpreet Singh | Head of Bioinformatics at LeafWorks Inc | yugpreet@gmail.com |
| Lara Pereira | Post doc at the University of Sheffield, UK | lara.pereira.garcia@sheffield.ac.uk |
| Nathan Taitano | Researcher at BASF in Sacramento CA | nathan.taitano25@uga.edu |
| Roisin McGarry | Adjunct research faculty, University of North Texas | Roisin.McGarry@unt.edu |
| Biyao Zhang | Research associate at the National Genomics Data Center, Beijing Institute of Genomics | biyao.zhang@foxmail.com |
| Qiang Li | Associate Professor, College of Horticulture Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University | lqsdau@163.com |
| Carmen Kraus | Freelance artist in Athens GA | ckraus11@gmail.com |
| Sarah Houtsma | Greenhouse manager at Capiola Hydroponics in Atlanta | sarah.houtsma@uga.edu |
| Shamir Harry | Bioinformatics research technician at the Jackon Laboratory in Maine | shamir.harry25@uga.edu |
| Alexis Ramos | Research Technician at Auburn University | azr0096@auburn.edu |
| Yi Hsuan Chu | Post doctoral researcher at Michigan State U | chu.285@osu.edu |
| Eudald Illa Berenguer | Post doctoral scholar at UGA | eillaberenguer@uga.edu |
| Nathan Detwiler | undergraduate student HCS at OSU | detwiler.83@osu.edu |
| Xiaoxi Liu | PhD student Department of Vegetable Science, China Agricultural University | liuxxabc@163.com |
| Yanping Wang | Post doctoral researcher at China Agricultural University | wangyp_cau@foxmail.com |
| Liang Sun | Associate professor Department of Vegetable Science, China Agricultural University | 317886104@qq.com |
| Jiheun Cho | Greenhouse and research assistant in HCS at OSU | jiheun72@hotmail.com |
| Shan Wu | Post doctoral researcher Cornell University | sw728@cornell.edu |
| Qi Mu | PhD student, Iowa State University | qmu@iastate.edu |
| Brenda Sanchez Montejo | Research Aide, Bay area | brendaj.montejo4@gmail.com |
| Manohar Chakrabarti | Post doctoral researcher U Kentucky | manohar.chakrabarti@gmail.com |
| Hyun Jung Kim | Researcher at Seoul University | hkim.2295@gmail.com |
| Lev Jardon Barbolla | Assistant professor UNAM, Mexico | levjardon@yahoo.com.mx |
| Jessica Perez Alquicira | Researcher in the Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics Lab at Langebio, Mexico | perezalquicira@gmail.com |
| Shin Reui Lee | National Taiwan University | sdemoniac0325@gmail.com |
| Jammi McClead | Mansfield Area Hospitals | jammimc3@gmail.com |
| Na Zhang | Breeder with Pioneer in China | na.zhang@pioneer.com |
| Antonio Cabrera | Post doctoral researcher at OSU’s wheat breeding program | cabrera.16@osu.edu |
| Nic Welty | Farmer and Restaurant Owner | nicwelty@gmail.com |
| Gustavo Rodríguez | Assistant Investigator CONICET, Argentina | grodrig@unr.edu.ar |
| Josh Clevenger | PhD Student, U Georgia | jclev@uga.edu |
| Ning Liu | Post Doctoral Researcher at U Nebraska | nliu@unl.edu |
| Jaymie Strecker | Software Developer, Kosada Inc | |
| Han Xiao | Professor Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, China | hanxiao@sibs.ac.cn |
| Zejun Huang | Associate Professor CAAS, China | huangzj74@gmail.com |
| Marin Talbot Brewer | Assistant Professor U Georgia | mtbrewer@uga.edu |
| Maria Jose Gonzalo | ||
| Steven Fenster | Assistant Professor, Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO | sdfenster@fortlewis.edu |
| Rhiannon Schneider | Masters Student OSU | schneider.541@osu.edu |
| Jenny Moyseenko | Research Associate at OSU | moyseenko.2@osu.edu |
| Meghan Fisher | Agricultural Supervisor, U Maryland | fishe154@gmail.com |
| Jason Van Houten | Premed student, Wayne State MI | jvanhouten11@gmail.com |
| Elaine Stingel | Undergrad student at OSU | stingel.7@buckeyemail.osu.edu |
| Scott Wolfe | Research Associate, OSU | wolfe.529@osu.edu |
| Claire Anderson | Masters Student in Genetic Counseling, Johns Hopkins | |
| Reynaldo Nuñez Salazar | Master’s student in La Molina, Peru | |
| Geoffrey Gonzalez | PhD student OSU | gonzalez-escobed.1@osu.edu |