David Esteban

I am a microbiologist and teacher at Vassar College, a small liberal arts college in NY state. I teach courses on microbiology, virology, general biology, and zombies

I got my BSc from the University of Calgary in 1998. I did an undergraduate research project on the effects of an the anti-inflammatory effects of an antibiotic. I received my PhD in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from St, Louis University. I studied how poxviruses evade the immune system, specifically looking at a viral protein that binds to and blocks interleukin-18. I then spent three years as a post-doc at the University of Victoria, where I studied viral bioinformatics and taught my first microbiology class. I came to Vassar in 2007. For several years I continued my work on poxviruses, but then switched to studying bacterial communities in soil and sediment. Now my interests in bacterial communities and viruses are coming together as I explore the role and diversity of viruses in soil.

 

Current Students:

Ellena Nador ’18: Using  iChips to Improve Diversity of Winogradsky Column Isolates

Alexander Bashaw ’18: Growth Factor Produced by Cladosporium Fungus Reduces Lag Phase of Slow Growing Bacteria

Monica Feeley ’19: Development of bean beetle model to study effects of gut microbiome on behavior

Clara Berard ’18: Viral and Bacterial Abundance in Winogradsky Columns over a Five Day Period

Caro Geary ’18: Perturbation of Gut Microbiota Impairs Cued Fear Recall in Female but not Male C57BL/6 Mice

Monty Kwan ’18: The Effect of Bacteriophage Manipulation on Bacterial Cultivability

Victoria Wilk ’20: Effects of antimicrobial treatment on cued fear recall in mice

Past Students:

Kylie Prutisto-Chang ’17: Effects of virucidal treatments on microbial communitieis of Winogradsky columns.  After Vassar: Research Assistant, MGH

Carly Scher ’17: Influence of viral abundance on microbial community structure in Winogradsky columns

Samanvaya Sharma ’18: Measurement of redox conditions in developing Winogradsky colums

Derek Arrowood ’16: Effects of salt and disruption on Winogradsky column microbial communities.  After Vassar: MS program in evolutionary medicine, UCLA

Maggie Ginoza ’16   (STS): Crowdfunding of Winogradsky column virome sequencing.  After Vassar: National Institute of Human Genome Research

Bethany Terry ’16: Development of epifluorescence technique for virus counts.  After Vassar: PhD program in microbiology, Temple University

Nina Andersen ’15: Identification of cyanophages in Wnogradsky columns using PCR         After Vassar: Research assistant (HIV), Seattle Children’s Hospital

Colette Fletcher-Hoppe ’15: Microbes in oak and maple dominated forest soils (with Lynn Christenson, co-advisor) After Vassar: National Human Genome Research Institute, PhD program in Oceanography, USC

Bledi Hysa ’15: Identification of CRISPRs in Winogradsky columns using PCR, Video analysis of Winogradsky panel time-lapse movie . After Vassar: Clinical research assistant, Cornell University, MD SUNY Downstate

Maya Khatri ’15: Isolation of DNA from vinegar mothers for microbial community characterization  (with David Jemiolo, co-advisor). After Vassar: Joslin Diabetes Clinic, Clinical Research Study Coordinator.

Whitney Manhart ’15: Immunopathogenesis of malaria. After Vassar: PhD program in virology at BU

Elyse Symer ’15

Casey Bartow-McKenney ’14: Characterization of CRISPR sequences in Winogradsky columns,  Microbial community analysis of Maple and Oak soils that differ in nitrification rates. After Vassar: PhD program in Bioinformatics, UPenn

Matthew Norstadt ’14

Nathan Tauger ’14: Quantification of viruses in Winogradsky Panels. After Vassar: Masters in Science Communication, U of Manchester

Haley Caldwell ’13: Characterization of a novel bacterial species of Phenylobacterium. After Vassar: Masters in Laboratory Science, Wadsworth Center NY Public Health Lab.

Ethan Rundell ’13: 16S rRNA gene survey of microbial communities in Winogradsky columns. After Vassar: PhD program, Yale University.  Topic: Disruption of antibiotic resistance mechanisms in P. aeurginosa

Keven Cabrera ’12: SiRNA knockdown of poxvirus non-coding gene vhRNA. After Vassar:  Clinical research coordinator, Columbia Medical Center.  MD program, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ.

Irene Kho ’12:  Assembly of Winogradsky column transcriptome. After Vassar: Clinical research associate, anaesthesiology, Montefiore Medical Center.  MD, SUNY Downstate Medical Center

Sherine Thomas ’11: qPCR of immunoproteasome gene expression changes during ectromelia virus infection. After Vassar: Clinical research in coronary artery disease.  Masters in Nursing, Boston College.

Anna Licht ’10: Characterization of gene expression in ECTV-IL4 infected cells. After Vassar: Research assistant at Ragon Institute, pursuing MD at Wisconsin Medical College

Emily Berger ’10: Analysis of ECTV-vhRNA knockout virus. After Vassar: Disaster response, American Red Cross.  Academic Director of medical non-profit, Bolivia.  MD, U Maryland-Baltimore.

Anne Hutchinson ’09: Poxvirus genome evolution. After Vassar: MD (Jefferson Medical College), OBGYN Residency (NY-Presbyterian-Cornell)

Chaim Tuckman-Vernon ’09