People

Current Members

Juliet Ainsley (Undergraduate Researcher)

Juliet is a junior double majoring in Environmental Science and Anthropology: Global Health and Environment. She is interested in how natural sources and pathways of contamination affect human health. In the Mallott Lab, she explores the impact of flooding on the human and soil microbiome as part of the REACH study. Additionally, she works on the REACH study for the Masteller Lab, where she explores soil lead and flooding events. In her free time, she loves to walk outside, play music, and explore St. Louis.

Dr. Carlye Chaney (NSF Postdoctoral Fellow)

Carlye Chaney is an NSF SBE Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mallott Laboratory, where she is investigating how pesticides and other environmental contaminants may influence childhood metabolic development. As part of this work, she is exploring how microbiome composition and diversity may mediate the relationship between environmental exposures and thyroid function. Carlye received her PhD in Anthropology from Yale University in 2023, and her PhD research investigated the experiences and biological consequences of exposure to environmental contaminants among mothers and infants from Namqom, Formosa, Argentina, and New Haven, Connecticut. When not in the lab, Carlye enjoys crocheting, running, and reading fantasy / science fiction novels.

Dr. Benjamin Gombash (Postdoctoral Research Associate)

Benjamin Gombash is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Mallott Lab where he is investigating nonhuman primate microbiomes. Ben has bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology and Wildlife Science from the Ohio State University (2012), a master’s in Primate Behavior from Central Washington University (2016), a master’s in Applied and Computation, Mathematics and Statistics (2022) and a PhD in Biology (2023) from the University of Notre Dame. Ben’s PhD research was focused on the microbiomes of long-tailed macaques and how they are impacted by anthropogenic changes to the host’s diet and external environment. In his free time Ben enjoys reading, hiking, and playing boardgames with friends.

Kiersten Grathwohl (Lab Manager)

Kiersten is the Lab Manager for the Mallott Lab. She majored in Animal Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2018) and has a Master’s degree in Biology from Murray State University (2020). While in school, she completed research projects on anthropogenic disturbance effects on mantled howler monkeys, and completed her thesis research on the effect of invasive species on the stress response in native, freshwater mussels. In the lab, Kiersten maintains lab organization and assists with different research projects. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, and finding new recipes to cook.

David Hernandez (DBBS/EEB Graduate Student)

Leena Kwak (Undergraduate Researcher)

Dr. Liz Mallott (PI)

Liz is interested in understanding host-associated microbiome variation within and between species. Liz majored in both Biology and Music at Grinnell College (2006) and has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2016). She was a postdoc at Northwestern University, Dartmouth College, and Vanderbilt University before starting at WUSTL in 2022.
mallott (at) wustl (dot) edu | CV | GitHub

Dev Mukundan

Dev is a senior majoring in Environmental Biology and minoring in Computer Science. He is interested in how the gut microbiome can be used as a proxy for health, especially across the human-animal-environment interface. In the lab, Dev is exploring parasite transmission between tamarin monkeys and their insect prey. Outside of the lab, Dev enjoys watching movies, hiking, and cooking for friends.

Jennifer Ong (Undergraduate Researcher)

Taz Rosenfeld (DBBS/EEB Rotation Student)

Taz Rosenfeld is a PhD student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program at WashU. In a microbiome context, he is interested in how symbionts might enable adaptive radiation in their hosts by providing access to new ecological resources; more broadly, he is fascinated by the interplay of contingency and determinism in shaping the evolutionary fates of lineages. In the Mallott Lab, he is currently studying the microbiomes of Caribbean anole species to assess the degree to which the parallel evolutionary patterns exhibited in lizard hosts extends to their symbiont communities. Taz received his bachelor’s from Yale University in Earth and Planetary Sciences and his master’s from Harvard University in Science Education. He splits his free time between chasing down the world’s amphibian and reptile species and singing/screaming in his environmental emo band, Half Inch Hero.

Lab Alumni

Kaylaa Betts (Undergraduate Researcher, 2022-2023)

Shan Wang (Undergraduate Researcher, 2023-2024)