Justin North, Ph.D.
north.62@osu.edu
Lab Office: 468 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Justin is an Assistant Professor and former NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow. His research focuses on discovery of novel organic-sulfur, carbon, and nitrogen cycling pathways and understanding how bacteria metabolize sulfur compounds otherwise wasted by other species.
Fun Fact: Justin’s hobbies include Jazz trumpet, brewing beer and fermenting food. If you are an undergraduate student interesting in learning how to brew beverages and handle yeast like the pros do in the industry, check out Micro 2100 – Yeast Discovery and Fermentation
Education: Justin has always been fascinated by the intersection of the biological and physical sciences. He received his B.S. in Physics and B.S. in Biology from Butler University in 2006. He then received his Ph.D. in Physics from The Ohio State University in 2012 specializing in biophysics and spectroscopy in the lab of M.G. Poirier. Justin did his postdoctoral work on microbial metabolism, genetics, and protein structure function in the lab of the late F.R. Tabita Lab from 2013-2018 where he was a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow (2014-2016).
—- Professional Scientists —-
Sarah Young, Lab Manager
young.1517@osu.edu
Lab Office: 423 Biological Science Building
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Sarah is a Research Associate who focuses on synthetic biology and gene expression optimization in photosynthetic bacteria for the production of biofuels and biomaterial such as butanol and ethylene.
Kamal Deep, Postdoctoral Scientist
deep.26@osu.edu
Lab Office: 423 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Kamal is a postdoctoral scientist working the synthetic regulation of ethylene synthesis genes in photosynthetic and lignocellulosic bacteria in order to engineer strains that can sustainably produce ethylene for bioplastics from CO2 and lignocellulose.
Katie Huening, Postdoctoral Scientist
huening.1@osu.edu
Lab Office: 423 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Katie received her Ph.D. in microbiology from The Ohio State University (Krzycki Lab) in 2020. Her research focuses on the role of sulfur and carbon salvage in extraintestinal pathogenic e. coli. She is also investigation the regulation of these pathways.
— Graduate Students —
Caitlin Wingerd
wingerd.3@osu.edu
Lab Office: 468 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Caitlin is working to understand the enzymatic activity of carbon assimilation enzyme homologs from various pathogenic bacteria involved in the use of 5-deoxy-pentose sugars as energy and carbon substrates. She is also working to isolate the transcription factor in E. coli responsible for regulating the expression of these carbon metabolism genes.
Joshua Groves, Master’s Student
groves.252@osu.edu
Lab Office: 468 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Joshua is working to uncover the genes and proteins in Extraintestinal Pathogenic E. coli required for the genetic regulation, transport, and metabolism of organic sulfur compounds. As part of his master’s thesis Joshua has adapted a transposon mutagenesis library development protocol for extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli
— Undergraduate Students —
Elizabeth Morgan, Undergraduate Microbiology Major and Eminence Fellow
Lab Office: 468 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Elisabeth is working to uncover the functional diversity in nitrogen fixation-like enzyme systems of known and unknown function
Fun Fact: Elizabeth is an American Sign Language Mino and volunteers to sign the National Anthem at OSU athletic events.
Jeffry Cheng, Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lab Office: 423 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Jeffrey is working to optimize ethylene synthesis by bacteria for bioplastics production by finding optimal enzymes that convert methionine to ethylene.
Katelyn Kapusta, Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lab Office: 468 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Katelyn is working to uncover the regulatory network and relevant growth conditions under which pathogenic E. coli express alternate carbon metabolism pathway
Sreya Kesarla, Undergraduate Research Assistant
Lab Office: 468 Biological Sciences
Lab Phone: (614) 292-4313
Sreya is working to engineer Clostridium cellulolyticum to convert cellulose plant mass into ethylene for renewable bioplastics.
Former Members
Matt Monago, Undergraduate class of ’24
Katy Byerly, Undergraduate class of ’21
Srividya Murali, MS, Research Associate