Xianfa Xie Lab members

Current Lab Members

Douglas Mendel Soares, Ph.D.: Douglas is a visiting scholar to the lab originally from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where he is a postdoctoral fellow at Dr. Cassius Stevani's lab. He is broadly interested in bioluminescent, but particularly in bioluminescent fungi. Aside from working hard in the lab, he likes to travel and has been enjoying many trips around the globe.

Alani Horton: Alani first joined the lab in fall 2022. Since then she has been working on multiple projects. But she is really passionate about biomedical research, particularly studying the molecular mechanisms of cancer and finding effective treatments. Not only a Presidential Scholarship-receiving honor student, she is also a member of the University's softball team. Go Trojans!

Makayla Reese: Makayla first joined the lab also in fall 2022. As a freshman biology student, she has a growing interest in studying insects. Often amazed by the anatomy, particularly under the stereoscope, and the behaviors of the flies and termites, she is becoming a burgeoning entomologist. Not only a Presidential Scholarship-receiving honor student, she is also a member of the University's debate team. Go Trojans, Go!

You, brilliant graduate students! Opportunity is available for 1-2 new graduate students to join the lab to work on any project of mutual interests, including the NSF funded project to study the bioluminescent mushrooms in Brazil, for the latter of which financial support is available.

Talented undergraduate students! Opportunity is available for multiple talented undergraduate students to join the lab to work on various genomics, bioinformatics, and biotechnology projects in the lab. Financial assistance is available for students working on the NSF funded bioluminescent mushroom project and any genomics-bioinformatics project.

Xianfa Xie: PI, also the lab manager and technical support for the lab, responsible for providing financial and technical assistance and finding external resources for lab members besides conducting research.

Lab Alumni

Alonzo Anderson: Alonzo graduated from Norfolk State University and then came to VSU for graduate study. He joined the lab in 2013 and started to work on his thesis project to characterize the cellulose-degrading bacteria. While he was in school, he was also the President of the local chapter of the TriBeta Biology Honor Society. He successfully defended his thesis in May 2015 with high marks from all committee members and has worked as an instructor in biology at VSU since Fall 2015.

Noela Muma: Noela first worked as a summer research intern at Xie Lab in 2013, then joined the lab as a graduate student after finishing her bachelor degree in biology from the University of Maryland, College Park. She worked on the biofuel project, trying to identify the cellulose-degrading fungi and bacteria. She was originally from Cameron and can speak her native language, French, and English fluently and a little bit Chinese. She learned how to say "teacher" in Chinese ("shi-fu") and uses that expression often unexpectedly in the lab. Needless to say, she is extremely smart! And now she is pursuing her dream in medical school.

Devante Holmes: Devante was a student in computer science and first joined the lab for research in summer 2013 under a NSF supported program. He continued into the fall on a pilot project to study the microbiome in the human digestive system and how it is affected by diet, living environment, and ethnical background and how it relates to human health. With a travel award, he presented the work at the 2014 Emering Researchers National (ERN) Conference in STEM at Washington, DC. After graduation with a B.S. in Computer Science, he has been pursing his IT dream to create the next big company like Facebook.

Latoya Wran: As a honor student in biology, Latoya first joined the lab for research in Summer 2014 working on the microbial biofuel project, through which she learned not to be afraid of termites or other insects. She continued to work in the lab on the cancer project, worriedly learning the effects of diet and drinks on health, which did not reduce her love for Chick-fil-A at all. After obtaining her B.S. degree in biology, she has continued to work on microbes in a research lab and is interested in pursuing doctoral studies in microbiology.

Sasha Harracksingh: Sasha also started in the lab as a honor student in biology in 2014 under a summer research program. She directly got into the cancer project, becoming very interested in examining the cells under microscopes and extracting DNA from them. She took very good notes on her work and her hand-writing are highly legible - a rare trait for "electronified" human population. After graduating from VSU with a B.S. degree in biology, she went on to pursue an accelerated nursing degree at John Hopkins University.

Asta Teffera: Asta first joined the lab in Summer 2015 under the support of a NSF program and continued in Fall 2015. She worked to identify the cellulose-degrading bacteria from more termite and soil samples recently collected. She was born in Brazil but moved to US for the military uniform. With the training in the ROTC program, she likes to line up termites in a straight line before dissecting them. She graduated with a B.S. in Biology in May 2016 and became an office in the VSU ROTC program.

Katrece Cook: Katrece worked in the lab on the biofuel project in Summer 2015 under the same NSF program. She has special ability to locate and catch termites, as if she could X-ray scan decaying logs to see what is underneath or inside. She was also very quick in dissecting the guts out of termites. For both reasons, she was recognized by everybody in the lab as the "Termite Terminator". She graduated with a B.S. in biology in December 2016 and is on the way to a graduate program in microbiology or health sciences. And you may also find her working as a highly-skilled termite terminator as a side job in the future.

Schmidt Vinge: Schmidt also worked in the lab on the biofuel project in Summer 2015 under the NSF program. With such a tender heart, dissecting termites was too much for him to bear, so he chose to work with soil microbes, enjoying extracting DNA and running PCR with them. Working together with Asta and Katreece as a great team, he was considered funny by his labmates, particularly when he spoke very little or not at all. He is still pursuing his B.S. in biology at VSU and always thirsty for intellectually challenging questions to answer.

Maricela Torres: Maricela also came to the lab for her capstone investigation and research course and fell in love with the flies. She was captivated by the picturesque flies and decided to work with them. Besides working in the lab and taking care of her courses, she also worked as a RA, Resident Assistant, at some dorms on the campus, which she found to be very fulfilling, in its literal sense. Originally from El Salvador, Maricela always looks forward to the next soccer game against Mexico.

Devin Vance: Devin came to the lab for his capstone investigation and research course and works on the fly project. He was very skillful in building houses for flies and keeping them at bay. Besides working in the lab, he also worked at a hospital and served as the President of the Pre-Med Society on the campus. Besides the sleepless gene, the awakening gene is also highly expressed in his body. Growing up in Virginia, Devin is studying in medical school at some exotic place.

Victoria Klimkowski: Victoria was interested in plants but also how plant materials could be used to produce biofuel, for the latter of which she joined the lab. She worked to identify and characterize the cellulose-degrading microbiomes in sheep rumen using pyrotag sequencing. As a biology student and a ROTC officer-in-training, she could get things done. Now working at Harvard University, she is well on the way to a Ph.D. program in plant biology.

Hannah Sawyer: Hannah has been interested in insects and plants ever since she was a kid but also grown strong interest in fungi recently. She joined the lab in Spring 2017 and has been enjoying playing with the flies and their DNA, as well the mushroom species. She has amazing abilities to find mushrooms in the field and is a devoted wild-life photographer. She had her first taste of crickets as food in February 2017, a historical event.

Serenity Smith: Serenity joined the lab in Fall 2019 as a junior biology student with a great interest in research. She enjoyed studying the termites and their microbial inhabitants. She has a great personality and was the glue to hold all students in the lab, including those taking the capstone Investigations and Research course, together.

Nikoli Green: Nikoli is not afraid of challenging academic work either. Though passionate about dentistry, he is very interested in research and has found the study of SARS-CoV-2 virus evolution very interesting. A hard-worker and a quick learner, he masters new analytical tools very quickly to conduct the research.

Teash-Juan Lewis: "Teash" enjoys challenging academic activities, particularly research. An "A" student in classes, she joined the lab for research on the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. She is meticulous with details but creative with ideas. She is a quick learner, hard-worker, and very good at multi-tasking.

Salma Salama: Salma joined the lab as a new graduate student in the M.S. in Biology Program at VSU in Spring 2021. She worked on the project to study the epigenetic mechanism of cancer, but she also had a great interest in environmental study, particularly in solving the world's increasing plastic problem.