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Lab Members
Jaap de Roode
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology
Jaap received his MSc in Population Biology from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and his PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He is interested in the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, and currently studies infectious diseases of monarch butterflies, honey bees and humans.
Erik Edwards
Greenhouse manager
Erik obtained a Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Georgia and has worked as grower at several commercial greenhouses. Since November 2017, he has been in charge of the Biology Department’s greenhouse, facilitating monarch butterfly work in the de Roode and Gerardo labs.
Zoe Zimmerman
Lab manager
Zoe received her BS in Biology from Emory University. She is the Research Specialist for the de Roode and Gerardo labs. Her interests include the role of species interactions in evolution and disease resistance.
Tiana Scott
Lab manager
Tiana graduated from Emory University with her BS in Biology. She is the research specialist for the de Roode and Gerardo labs. She is interested in the impact of environmental change on species interactions.
Nadya Muchoney
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow
Nadya obtained her PhD from the University of Nevada, Reno, where she studied the role of host plant chemistry in anti-viral immunity in butterfly hosts. She is currently investigating how milkweed chemicals shape monarch midgut microbiomes, and how midgut microbes contribute to resistance against a protozoan parasite.
Ehsan Sanaei
Postdoctoral Researcher
Ehsan obtained his PhD from the University of Queensland, and carried out postdoctoral research at Griffith University. His main interests involve insect-microbe interactions. Having studied Wolbachia endosymbionts in scale insects, he is now using monarch butterflies to study the role of gut microbes in driving resistance to parasite infection.
Mackenzie Hoogshagen
PBEE Graduate Student
Mackenzie obtained her BSc in Biology from the University of Central Arkansas and is currently a PhD student in Emory’s PBEE program. Her work focuses on chemical ecology and budget energy modeling. She is interested in understanding how climate change may alter host-parasite interactions, and uses monarch butterflies, their milkweed plants and their protozoan parasites as a model system.
Sara Gotkin
Undergraduate Student
Sara is a biology major who is interested in the role of milkweed plant chemicals in driving monarch-parasite interactions.
Marlyne Gonzalez
INSPIRE Undergraduate Student
Marlyne is a biology major on the pre-med track at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. As part of the Summer 2025 INSPIRE program at Emory, she is researching how antibiotic treatments affect the microbial communities of second instar monarch caterpillars.
Samvidha Meka
Summer Undergraduate Student
Samvidha studies biomedical physiology at the University of Georgia, and carries out research on tri-trophic interactions between monarchs, milkweeds, and parasites in the de Roode lab.
Collaborators
Lab Alumni
Postdocs
PhD Students
Eleanore Sternberg
Thesis title: “Studies of local adaptation and ecological determinants of infection in a monarch butterfly parasite interaction”
Amanda Pierce
Thesis title: “Determining the effects of animal migration and range expansion on population genetics”
Travis Dynes
Thesis title: “Genetics and human management in Varroa destructor parasitism”
Erica Harris
Thesis title: “The role of medicinal food plants in mediating the gut microbiome and disease resistance in monarch butterflies”
Mitchell Kendzel
Thesis title: “Linking pattern and process: applying agent-based models and spatial Bayesian statistics to the study of animal migration”
Zachary Lynch
Thesis title: “Effects of parasites on host adaptation: immune system trade-offs, alternative behavioral defenses, and outcrossing rates”
Mary Bushman
Thesis title: “Within-host competition and evolution of drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum”
Wen-Hao Tan
Thesis title: “Ecological immunology in a tri-trophic context: plant-mediated defense and immune gene evolution in monarch butterflies”
Signe White
Thesis title: “The evolution of virulence in heterogeneous host populations”
MS Students
Dylan Grippi
Thesis title: “Within-host ecology: parasitism over a changing landscape”
Gayatri Sekar
Thesis title: “Assessing competition between drug resistant and drug sensitive parasites in natural populations of Plasmodium falciparum”
Andrew Mongue
Thesis title: “Dynamics of multiple matings in monarch butterflies”
Ivan Shoemaker
Thesis title: “Risk-based plasticity of self-medication behavior in Drosophila melanogaster”