People

Principal Investigator

Vanessa Hale MAT, DVM, PhD, hale.502@osu.edu, Twitter: @Hale_Microbes

Vanessa completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia and then taught high school for 3 years and obtained a Masters in Teaching (Secondary) from Western New Mexico University. She got a DVM PhD (Ecology, Evolution, Environmental Biology) at Purdue University studying the gut microbiome and health of wild and captive colobine monkeys. She then did a postdoctoral fellowship in the Mayo Clinic Microbiome Program examining the relationship between the gut microbiome and diseases including colorectal cancer and Clostridioides difficile infection (formerly Clostridium difficile). At Ohio State University (OSU), she draws on her background in ecology and human and animal health to study the microbiome and disease using a One Health approach. Vanessa also serves as a Co-Director of the Microbial Communities Program within OSU’s Infectious Diseases Institute and the Associate Director of the Center of Microbiome Science.

Graduate Students

Zachary Lewis, BA, lewis.3359@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Zach graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, MN, with a biology major and biochemistry minor. While an undergraduate student, Zach researched female sexual dysfunction using a rat model with the Meerts Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Lab. Zach is interested in animal and environmental health and the One Health movement, and has pursued these interests in zoological, veterinary, and research settings. He is pursuing a graduate degree from the College of Veterinary Medicine with the Hale Lab. His work will focus on the Probiome Clinical Trial, which aims to show whether an E. coli probiotic can improve clinical outcomes in dogs undergoing chemotherapy for urothelial carcinoma.

 

 

 

 

Tessa Cannon, MSc, RVT, cannon.320@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Tessa received a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University and Master’s degree in Primate Conservation from Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom. She is also a Registered Veterinary Technician and has worked in general practice, emergency medicine, and zoo/sanctuary medicine. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Anthropology, being co-advised by Dr. Scott McGraw and Dr. Vanessa Hale. Her research focuses on the interactions between Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), diet, and the gut and oral microbiome of sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) in the Tai Forest, Ivory Coast.

Veterinary Students

Andrew McGlynn, BS, mcglynn.29@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Andrew completed his undergraduate degree in Pre-Veterinary Biology and Ecology, Evolution, Organismal Biology at West Liberty University. Currently, he is a second year veterinary student at The Ohio State University. His work in the laboratory is involved with the Canine Urine Microbiome Project studying the microbiota of healthy canine urine.

Angela Scott, Lab Manager, scott.2289@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Angela is a veterinary student with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (BSPS) and a minor in Animal Sciences. In the lab she is involved in studying metabolites present in urine of both healthy dogs and dogs with bladder cancer. She is also working on evaluating various extraction methods and host cell removal methods for optimizing urine microbiome profiling.

Danielle Curcio, MPH/VPH, curcio.17@buckeyemail.osu.edu 

Danielle is a veterinary student with a Masters in Veterinary Public Health. During her Masters, she examined canine and feline bladder cancer rates around the state of Ohio and compared this distribution against agricultural pesticide use in Ohio. She continues to remain involved in lab research related to canine bladder cancer.

Alumni

Kilmer Soares, MSc, PhD kilmerzootec2010@hotmail.com

Current position: Research Faculty at Semi Arid National Institute of Paraiba, Brazil

Rushil Madan, madan.48@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Hailey Curtis, DVM, curtis.405@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Morgan V. Evans, PhD, evans.2408@osu.edu, twitter: @morgvevans

Current Position: Critical Materials Scientist at Battelle

David Minich, MAS, DVM minich.16@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Current Position: Veterinary Intern at the University of Tennessee

Ryan Mrofchak, MS, mrofchak.5@buckeyemail.osu.edu

Current Position: PhD student in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at Ohio State University

Christopher Madden, PhD