CONSTRUCTION IN PROGRESS
Steve Bell Google Scholar
Steve is originally from Glasgow, Scotland. He went to Glasgow University were he obtained his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology, a PhD in Molecular Genetics (studying the bacterial transposon Tn7 in Dave Sherratt’s lab) and then worked as a post-doc in Dave Barry’s lab studying transcription in trypanosomes. In December 1995 he finally tore himself away from Scotland and moved to a post-doc position in Steve Jackson’s lab in the Gurdon Institute, Cambridge where he started working on archaea. In Steve J.’s lab, he studied basal and regulated archaeal transcription. Setting up his own lab in the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, Cambridge, Steve switched to studying archaeal DNA replication. In 2007, he moved to become the Professor of Microbiology at Oxford University before relocating to Indiana University in 2012 where he was a Distinguished Professor in Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. In 2024 Steve moved to The Ohio State University where he holds the rank of Ohio Eminent Scholar and Professor in the Department of Microbiology.
Ian Baeten – Graduate Student
Ian received his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Brigham Young University. He then worked for a year at bioMérieux in Salt Lake City as a Research Associate before coming to The Ohio State University to pursue a PhD. Ian joined the Bell Lab in the spring of 2025, where he studies topoisomerases in Sulfolobus.
Rylee Hackley – Post-doc
Rylee Hackley received her Ph.D. in 2023 from Duke University where she worked with Amy Schmid studying transcriptional regulation in Euryarchaea. In the Bell Lab, she is using long-read sequencing and other -omics techniques to study chromosome architecture.
Benjamin Hepp – Post-doc
Benjamin Hepp earned his PhD in 2023 from Paris-Saclay University, where he worked with Jacques Oberto to study the mechanisms of thermophilic integrases in Thermococcales. In the Bell lab, he applies various biophysical and structural biology techniques to investigate DNA replication in Sulfolobales.
Meagan Michalik – Graduate Student
Meagan Michalik received her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Florida in 2024 where she worked with halophilic archaea in the lab of Dr. Julie Maupin-Furlow. She joined the Bell lab in the spring of 2025 where she is investigating topoisomerases in Sulfolobales and their effect on chromosome organization.
Elyza Pilatowski-Herzing – Graduate Student
Elyza Pilatowski-Herzing received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Seton Hill University. After graduation she worked as a post-baccalaureate for David A. Lewis at the Translation Neuroscience Program at the University of Pittsburgh. In the Bell Lab, she investigates the regulation of the chromosome organizer, coalescin.
Rachel Samson – Senior Research Scientist
Pranet Sirikonda – Undergraduate Researcher
Rajkumar Dhanaraju – Graduate Student
Raj was a grad student in Steve’s lab at IU. He is currently writing his thesis on the novel origin-associated protein, UBP.