Pringle Laboratory Harvard University 16 Divinity Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 617-496-9741

Anne was featured on the NPR program, All Things Considered, on February 8, 2007. - On the Trail of the Death Cap Mushroom

• Anne Pringle at pringle[at]oeb.harvard.edu
  

  I am interested in all aspects of the research described at this site. Currently I am exploring how ecological forces shape fungal associations with plants, and I am also interested in fungal conservation biology and the biomechanics of fungal movements. Specific questions focus on how symbioses reform as fungi move across landscapes, the impacts of an invasive mushroom on local biodiversity, and the demography of modular species.

• Primrose Boynton at pboynton[at]fas.harvard.edu

  Dispersal can influence a microbial community both by limiting the microbes that arrive in a community and by influencing other processes, like competition. I am interested in how microbial dispersal interacts with competition in natural communities, and am studying these processes using communities of yeasts that live in pitchers of the carnivorous plant Sarracenia purpurea as a model system.

• Agnese Seminara at agnese.seminara[at]gmail.com

  My research focuses primarily on fungal spore dispersal and bacterial biofilm development. I am particularly interested in individual and collective motility in these biological systems, both from a mechanistic and an evolutionary perspective. I make use of an interdisciplinary approach, combining theoretical modeling of the physical mechanisms that allow motility; numerical simulations of the model equations and simple experiments http://http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~seminara/

• Chris Baker at cbaker@oeb.harvard.edu

  http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/pierce/people/baker/

• Joerg Fritz at joerg.a.fritz[at]gmail.com

  I'm interested in physical and mathematical models that can help us quantify and understand morphological diversity. How can we relate morphology (phenotype) to the the way species interact with their environment (external constraints) or to the underlying developmental genetics (genotype)? Currently, I'm exploring how the physics of spore dispersal influences the shape of ascomycete fruiting bodies. I'm also part of Michael Brenner's group at SEAS where I work on related (and sometimes completely unrelated) questions.

• Elizabeth (Za) Barron at ebarron[at]oeb.harvard.edu

  My research, broadly, examines the formation and uses of environmental knowledge for environmental governance and conservation. For my dissertation, this included documenting the emerging field of fungal conservation in the United States and Europe, and its impacts on federal land management and policy. From that research I have an ongoing project on social-ecological systems of morels in the mid-Atlantic states of the USA, which emphasizes the integration of local and scientific knowledge for management and conservation. My current research project, funded through the National Science Foundation, looks at how evolutionary biologists are navigating the relationship between molecular biology research and biodiversity conservation politics, using the discipline of mycology as the case study. I am also a postdoctoral fellow, studying with Sheila Jasanoff, in the Program on Science, Technology & Society at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. [CVdownload]

• Leonora Bittleston at leobit[at]gmail.com

  I am interested in the interactions between insects, fungi and plants, and the evolution and maintenance of mutualisms. Fungi and insects attract me as both are vast groups with unique capabilities that comprise a large part of the world’s biodiversity, but are significantly understudied relative to their abundance. Their interactions give insight into unusual life-cycles, evolution of complex traits and chemicals, and the interdependence of living organisms.

 

• Kolea Zimmerman at kzimmerman[at]fas.harvard.edu

  I am interested in the mechanisms of aging and communication within filamentous fungal networks and how these processes evolved in the fungi.  I am also interested in molecular signaling between genetically similar individuals in fungal communities.

• Gabriel Amselem at gamselem[at]seas.harvard.edu

  I am interested in the launch of fungal spores, and make experiments to help generate and test fluid mechanics models of the different mechanisms by which spores are ejected. I am also interested in the evolution of mycelial network architectures in response to environmental constraints.

• Jaqueline Hess at jhess[at]fas.harvard.edu

  Coming from a background in phylogenetics and comparative genomics, I am interested in the evolution of complex systems, from the cellular to the community scale, and the processes responsible for their emergence. My main focus of research currently centers on the evolution of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) symbiosis in Amanita mushrooms. Using next-generation sequencing technologies, we are investigating the genomic changes accompanying the transition from a free-living to symbiotic organism with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the evolutionary trajectories leading to ECM symbiosis in particular and mutualistically dependent lifestyles in general.

• Celeste Peterson at cpeterson[at]oeb.harvard.edu

Celeste's background is bacterial genetics, but in the Pringle lab she focused on the community ecology of bacteria using both lichens and the carnivorous plant Sarracenia purpurea as models. She is currently based at the Laub lab at MIT, and focuses on bacterial dormancy and its influence on the population biology of Caulobacter crescentus

• Franck Richard at franck.richard[at]cefe.cnrs.fr

Franck moved to a position at the Universite de Montpellier (France) in December 2006. Franck's research involves the diversity, ecology and role of fungi in natural ecosystems. During his PhD at the University of Toulouse (France), he focused on forest ecosystems, investigating the diversity and the role of ectomycorrhizal fungi along secondary successions in Mediterranean forests. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Pringle lab, exploring both fusion between fungal individuals and the symbiosis between the invasive species Amanita phalloides and North American forest trees. Franck moved to a position at the Universite de Montpellier (France) in December 2006. His current website is www.cefe.cnrs.fr/coev/F_Richard.htm.

• Hugh Cross at hcross[at]oeb.harvard.edu

Hugh moved to a position with the Department for Environment and Heritage at the State Herbarium of South Australia in May 2008. Hugh is interested in the evolution of plants and fungi, and their distributions in space and time, particularly Pleistocene biogeography and how modern biotas were shaped by the last ice age and continue to be affected by humans. In our lab he developed techniques to co-extract fungi and plants from soils and other mixed substrates, as well as study the coevolution of these symbiotic organisms. His research drew on his prior experience establishing an ancient DNA facility in Leiden, The Netherlands. In May 2008 Hugh moved to a position with the Department for Environment and Heritage at the State Herbarium of South Australia.

• Kristi Ann Fenstermacher at kfenster[at]fas.harvard.edu

  Harvard College class of 2008 As an undergraduate, Kristi established protocols to digitally image lichens. Kristi left us to spend the summer chasing lizards with the Losos lab, is currently chasing genes at the Harvard Medical School, and is likely to go to graduate school in the near future.

• Jessica Soon Ok Worl at jworl[at]fas.harvard.edu

  Harvard College class of 2008 Jess did all kinds of work in the Pringle laboratory. She left us to join the Peace Corps, and served in Guinea and Zambia. She is now preparing for graduate school in international economic policy.

• Julie Shapiro at shapiro2[at]fas.harvard.edu

  Harvard College class of 2010 In addition to general lab rat tasks, Julie did research on the fungi of various Eastern US caves and the impacts of human activity on fungal diversity. Julie is now living in Hungary, learning Hungarian and plotting future travels.

• Marcus Roper at mroper[at]deas.harvard.edu

  Marcus is a fluid dynamicist interested in the physics of fungal spore launch and dispersal, particularly in ascomycetes. Marcus spent a year doing post-doctoral research here and is currently a Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

• Junling Zhang at junlingz[at]cau.edu.cn

  Junling's research focuses on the role of AM fungi in confering tolerance to plants experiencing abiotic and biotic stresses. She is also interested in fungal diversity and fungal intereactions with other soil microorganisms. This research will help biologists to understand the function of fungi in nature. Junling was a visiting scholar from China Agricultural Unveristy (www.cau.edu.cn/zihuan), and stayed in Anne's lab for one year.

• Karla Sartor at ksartor[at]fas.harvard.edu

  Karla's interests are in plant and fungal ecology, environmental science, and computer applications to support biological research. She was our lab manager but also spent time in the Holbrook lab and with faculty from the Business School and Harvard University Center for the Environment, always working to integrate analytical methods with data on pressing environmental problems. Karla is now working from Los Alamos, New Mexico, telecommuting and continuing her research at HUCE.

• Rebecca Compton at compton.rebecca@gmail.com

  Harvard College Class of 2010 As an undergraduate student in the Pringle Lab, I documented patterns in lichen biodiversity loss for my senior thesis project. Currently, I am studying speciation in Solanum sect. Lycopersicon (tomato plants) as a technician at Indiana University. Next year, I plan to enter medical school and am eager to apply my background in ecology and evolutionary biology to the study of human health.

• Sasha Mushegian at amushegian[at]gmail.com

  Harvard College class of 2010 Sasha conducted her senior thesis research in the Pringle lab, studying communities of lichen-associated bacteria, supervised by Celeste Peterson. She is currently a visiting researcher at the Evolutionary Biology Centre of Uppsala University as part of a grant for international collaboration between the Pringle lab and the Johanesson group

• Benjamin E. Wolfe

  In the Pringle Lab, Ben's research interests were in the ecological and evolutionary links between above-ground and below-ground biota. He was specifically interested in how plants and soil fungi interact in natural environments at the population- and community levels of biological organization. He was also interested in human perceptions and valuations of the hidden biodiversity of soils. Ben is now in the Dutton Lab at the Harvard FAS Center for Systems Biology.

• Sam Perez at samgperez[at]gmail.com

  My research interests in this lab include the diversity of decomposer fungi, the impacts of global change and adaptation to disturbed ecosystems.  I am an undergraduate currently doing a senior research thesis that encompasses all of my interests at Harvard Forest in Petersham, Massachusetts.  Research inquiry has included fieldwork, morphological and molecular analysis.