Lab News

We are sad to say good-bye to our two exceptional Research Assistants, Josh Coleman and Tahmineh Esfandani who both left us in the month of December. Josh is currently training for a Clinical Laboratory Science career with plans to move to Texas in the Summer of 2020 for his clinical rotation. Along with her husband and son, Tahmineh has moved to College Park, Texas where she is a Senior Research Associate in the Blackmon Laboratory at Texas A&M. Although we miss them both, we wish them the best of luck as they each pursue their new lives in the longhorn state.

The Singh lab is super excited to welcome Sabrina and Sophia!

“Sabrina Mostoufi joined the Singh lab in June of 2019 as a doctoral graduate student. Before attending the University of Oregon, Sabrina received her B.Sc. in Biology from Pacific Union College with an emphasis in genetics. Her research focuses on the host-microbe relationship between Drosophila melanogaster and Wolbachia pipientis, specifically how these interactions affect recombination rate. Outside of the lab, Sabrina enjoys spending time with her cats, skiing, and finding the best kombucha Oregon has to offer.”

“Before coming to Oregon, Sophia graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in biology and a minor in English literature. She is interested in identifying genetic determinants of recombination rate variation and studying the consequences of this variation for evolutionary processes, particularly for divergence and speciation. To help answer these questions, she plans to use a variety of approaches –genomic analysis, experiments, and simulations. Outside of work, you can probably find her running on the trails in beautiful Oregon.”

Josh Coleman joined the Singh lab in December 2018. Prior to coming to Oregon, Josh received his master’s degree from the University of Alabama in Huntsville where he studied larva behavioral evolution of Drosophila mojavensis in an ecological context (picture at left shows movement tracks of larva within circles).  More recently, he has focused on the underlying genetic basis for phenotypic evolution during host shifts.  Beyond the lab, Josh enjoys studying bioethics, hiking, and traveling.