Erik Wright (Google Scholar, Twitter)PhD Microbiology @ UW-Madison
M.S. Civil & Environmental Engineering @ UW-Madison
B.S. Electrical & Computer Engineering @ Cornell University
Erik's research integrates experimental and computational approaches to tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance. Although antibiotics have been used by microorganisms for eons, it remains unclear how these organisms have mitigated the rise of antibiotic resistance in their competitors. Erik studies the strategies that naturally antibiotic-producing bacteria have evolved to discourage the build-up of resistance, how we might employ similar tactics in the clinic, and how some pathogens have adapted to overcome antibiotics while paying a minimal price for resistance. The goal of this research is to develop new strategies for treating infectious disease, ultimately turning the tide against increasing antibiotic resistance.
Program Manager
Monica Jo Tomaszewski PhD Infectious Diseases and Microbiology @ University of Pittsburgh
M.S. Engineering Management @ Point Park University
B.S. Biology & Environmental Protection Science @ Point Park College
Project Management Professional
Like much of the lab, Monica is interested in simple solutions to complex problems. However, the problems that she tries to solve are: “What is the best way to shape the public facing image of the lab?” and “How can we be more efficient in generating and presenting our data?” As someone who collects degrees and certifications for fun, Monica has a large range of talents that allows her to help guide research plans, mentor students in experimental development, and know useless scientific trivia. As program manager, Monica prefers to tug all the strings from behind the scenes, but as a scientist, she doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty.
Administrative Assistant
Maria BondMLIS @ University of Pittsburgh
B.A. Humanities @ University of Pittsburgh
Maria is an administrator in the Department of Biomedical Informatics. She manages administrative matters for the Wright lab, including lab ordering, maintenance of equipment, safety plans, and scheduling. She is dedicated to helping the scientists do their science.
Software Engineer
Nick CooleyPhD Chemistry @ University of Missouri
B.S. Microbiology; BS Molecular Genetics @ Ohio State University
Nick is a software engineer responsible for developing the SynExtend package for R. He is interested in creating new approaches for detecting related genes across organisms and applying these results to solve interesting biology problems. Nick is especially interested in the detection of biosynthetic gene clusters in diverse microorganisms.
Research Specialists
Shania KhatriB.S. Biology @ Georgia Institute of Technology
Shania, currently a research specialist, is interested in the mechanisms of developing antibiotic resistance. Her main research focus is unveiling the mechanisms that drive Vancomycin resistance in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Shania is the force that manually drives the experimental evolution in MRSA. As an aspiring physician, she is hopeful that her research will translate into clinically useful findings that directly benefit patients, countering the rise of drug-resistant infections.
Graduate Students
Samuel BlechmanB.S. Biochemistry @ University of Akron
Sam is a graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Informatics studying the use of electronic health records to inform prescribing practices related to antibiotics.
Shu-Ting ChoM.S. in Plant Pathology and Microbiology @ National Taiwan University
B.S. in Life Sciences @ National Central University
Shu-Ting is a graduate student in the Joint CMU-Pitt Ph.D. Program in Computational Biology (CPCB) at the University of Pittsburgh. She is currrently studying the evolution of tandem repeats in genomes, which underly many human diseases.
Aidan LakshmanB.S. Mathematics @ University of Central Florida
Aidan is a doctoral fellow in the Biomedical Informatics Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh. His work involves using causal modeling to unravel the evolution of prokaryotic genomes. The goal of his research is to show what can be gleaned from tens of thousands of genomes that cannot be learned from only having a few genomes.
Nishant PanickerB.S. Biology @ Azim Premji University
Nishant is a graduate student in the Integrative Systems Biology program at the University of Pittsburgh. The goal of his research is to predict the evolutionary pathway(s) toward antibiotic resistance to inform clinical decisions on antibiotic treatment strategies. Nishant uses a combination of mathematical models and experimental approaches.