People
People
Maude David
Associate Professor, Departments of Microbiology and Pharmaceutical Sciences. [email protected] @MDavidLab
Dr. Maude M. David graduate work focused on environmental microbial ecology and next generation sequencing. After graduation, she became a post-doctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She studied the impact of climate change on different microbial systems, where she developed new computational tools for the analysis of microbial metagenomes. In 2014, she moved to Stanford School of Medicine, applying her biocomputing expertise to studying Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She looked at the impact of the gut microbiome on ASD, as well as evolutionary constraints on the human genes involved in this disorder. She joined Oregon State University in January 2018, where she combines laboratory and computational techniques to unravel the underlying mechanisms of the gut-brain axis. She has a joined appointment in Microbiology and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER
Logan Blair
Logan joined the David lab as a postdoctoral scholar in 2025. He previously graduated with a Ph.D. in genetics and genomics from UC Davis in 2022. Logan is interested in making sense of the weird and hard-to-characterize ways that genomes can evolve. In the past, he studied de novo gene origin in Drosophila, and the not quite sexual, not quite clonal patterns of evolution in the genus Phytophthora. In the David Lab, Logan uses a mixture of molecular and genomic techniques to investigate the prevalence and diversity of Melissococcus plutonius, the bacterial pathogen responsible for European foulbrood in honeybees.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Caroline Hernandez
Caroline Hernández graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2020. In 2021, she joined the David Laboratory as a doctoral Student. As a self-proclaimed “gut gal,” Caroline aims to uncover microbial drivers of gut-brain communication by identifying gut microbiota members capable of directly interacting with synaptic enteroendocrine cells (EECs) using multi-omics and whole-cell crosslinking approaches. Through her work, she has garnered skills in animal husbandry, organ-on-a-chip technology, and most recently, single cell sequencing approaches. Caroline is also a recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship and an ARCS Oregon Scholar. Caroline is passionate about increasing accessibility, inclusivity, and diversity in STEM through organizing experiential microbiology summer camps for underserved communities and community-focused science communication efforts. Outside the lab, she enjoys backpacking, climbing, painting, baking, birding, and exploring the outdoors.
Nima Azbijari
Nima graduated from UC San Diego with B.Sc. in Cognitive science with a minor in Computer Science in 2018. In 2021 he graduated from University of Hawaii at Manoa with a M.S. in Computer Science. At OSU he is now an AI PhD student in the David lab focusing on machine learning and computational biology. Specifically, he works on protein language models for sequence annotation tasks as well as graph machine learning for learning over biological databases.
Kevin Rice
Kevin Rice graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2022 and joined the David Lab as a PhD student in 2023. His research investigates the neurobiological mechanisms underlying gut-brain axis communication, focusing on enteroendocrine cells (EECs) and the vagal neurons they synapse with. Specifically, he is interested in utilizing patch-clamp electrophysiology to characterize which microbially derived gut compounds are influencing neuronal excitability and the mechanisms driving these interactions. His work ultimately aims to contribute to a better understanding of how disruptions in gut-brain signaling may influence neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He is co-advised by Dr. Kenton Hokanson. Outside of the lab, Kevin is an avid distance runner and board gamer.
UNDERGRADUATES RESEARCHERS
Tori Schummer
Tori is a senior in Microbiology at Oregon State University. She has been working in the David lab for a couple of years, and received several undergraduate award such as: URSA Engage and SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience). She has acquired a wide range of wet laboratory experience, and has been working with mice and primary cell culture. This year, she started working a newly funded bee project, and is becoming an expert in microbial anaerobic culture (from the bees), and molecular biology techniques (such as quantitative PCR).
Anne (Annie) Lackey
high school, she was a virtual intern with a nephrology lab at OHSU using R to analyze single nucleus RNA sequencing data. Anne joined the David Lab in the summer of 2023 with a strong interest in studying the gut-brain axis. She began in the wet lab, acquiring skills such as animal husbandry, PCR, gel electrophoresis, and primary cell culture. She received an REEU internship that consisted of a python bootcamp and a computational project within the lab in the summer of 2024, transitioning Anne into the computational side of the lab. She is currently working with metagenomic data processing and analysis from previous lab projects, in conjunction with Nima's deep learning approaches. She has also received the CAS undergraduate researcher award this year to support the primary cell culture project. Anne hopes to continue wet lab and computational work in graduate school after undergrad. Outside of school and lab, Anne loves hiking, reading, and playing the guitar.
Connor Goodrich
Connor is a Junior in Microbiology with a minor in Chemistry. He's involved with Oregon State the Pre-Dental club and is currently serving as the president. He is interested in how microbes effect overall human health, and is working on several projects involving mice in the lab (including mice colony maintenance). In his free time, he enjoys fishing, camping, and hanging out with friends.
Austin Murray
Austin is a softmore majoring in BioHealth Sciences on a pre-med track. He just join the David lab and is learning to take care of the mice colony, and genotyping. He also previously interned in a cognitive neuroscience lab at the University of Oregon for the past two years, where he worked on various projects related to learning, memory, and transitive inference.
Tanush Sisla
Tanush is a Biochemistry and Biophysics bachelor student. He is also pursuing a minor in Biological Data Sciences, and is expected to graduate in June 2028. He has spent the first year in the David with the computational biology team, and helped build a database of environmental and human proteins to train deep learning models. He is now working on applying models developed by the lab within the framework of an NSF funded project (CAIG). Amongst his many interests the lab outside the lab, he volunteers at the Family Science and Engineering nights at local elementary schools.
Isabella Risser
Bella is a junior majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a minor in Psychology and Chemistry. Bella is going into her second year working in the David lab, where she specializes in wet lab work. In the wet lab, Bella has gained experience in microbial anaerobic culture of bee larvae guts and quantitative qPCR. While in the lab, she has received various undergraduate awards such as SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience), URSA Engage, and the Continuing Research Support Program. This year, Bella will be the VP of the Microbiology Student Association, a volunteer at OHSU, a CNA at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, an undergraduate researcher in the David Lab, and a full time student at OSU.