Ana L. Caicedo

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ana obtained her B.S. in Biology in 1996 at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She left the lofty peaks of the Andes for the (flatter) environment of the Midwest U.S. to attend graduate school at Washington University in St. Louis; there she studied the population genetics of disease resistance genes in wild tomatoes and received her Ph.D. in 2003. During a postdoc at NC State, she carried out research on the evolutionary genomics of rice domestication and the population genetics of floral timing genes in Arabidopsis thaliana. Ana joined the UMass Biology faculty in 2006.  Her current research interests include the genetic basis of adaptation, the genomics of plant domestication, and the population genetics of diversification within and between species.

Rachel Tavares

PhD student, Plant Biology

Rachel is a PhD student in the Plant Biology Graduate Program. She rotated in Fall 2019 and joined the lab in Spring 2020. She is most interested in endophytic microbes in weedy versus cultivated rice species. Previously, she worked at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center studying abscission zone development and using Setaria protoplast cells to create plant sensors. 

e-mail: rltavares_at_umass.edu

Maryam Rashidzade

PhD student, Plant Biology

Maryam is a Ph.D. student in the Plant Biology Graduate Program. She rotated in Spring 2021 and joined the lab. She received B.S. and M.Sc. in Horticulture from the University of Tehran, Iran. She is mostly interested in population genetics, evolution, and plant-pathogen coevolution. 

e-mail: mrashidzade_at_umass.edu

Ludmila Tyler

Collaborator

Ludmila Tyler is a Senior Lecturer in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department.  Her interests include the genetics, cell walls, and developmental biology of plants, as well as bioenergy and undergraduate education.  In the lab, her focus is on the genomics and natural variation of the model grass Brachypodium distachyon.

e-mail: ludmilat_at_umass.edu

Sherin Kanthi Perera

Technician

Sherin received her B.S. in Biology in 1987 at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. She has a Post Graduate Diploma in education too. For many years Sherin was a high school biology teacher in Sri Lanka. After immigrating to the U.S., Sherin volunteered for a summer in the lab and got some hands-on experience in rice phenotyping, DNA extraction, and challenging PCRs. Since then, she has been working in the lab as a technician. Sherin’s knowledge of rice growth and agriculture has proved to be a great resource for all, and her tasty Sri Lankan dishes are addictive.

e-mail: sherine_at_bio.umass.edu

Jessica Matheson

Undergraduate researcher, Biology

Jessica is an undergraduate Biology major with a focus on Cellular Biology and Genetics. In the Spring of 2022, she joined the Caicedo lab and continued her work with the lab throughout that summer. During this time, she gained valuable laboratory experience, particularly by assisting with the seed-shattering project in weedy rice. Jess is responsible for the lab’s undergraduate dodder research, studying the haustorial attachments of various dodder species to a variety of host plants. Her interests lay in microscopy, DNA extraction, and caring for her plants in the greenhouse.

email: jlmatheson_at_umass.edu

Isabelle Schramm von Blucher

Undergraduate researcher

Isabelle is an undergraduate Biology major with an interest in genetics and evolution. She joined the Caicedo Lab in the Fall of 2022 working with PhD student Mariam Rashidzade. In the lab, Isabelle has helped investigate the relationship between tomatoes and their co-evolved fungal pathogens.

e-mail: ischrammvonb_at_umass.edu

Brian Kubi

Undergraduate researcher

Brian is an undergraduate student majoring in biology. He joined the lab in Fall of 2023 and is currently working with PhD student Maryam Rashidzade. In the lab, Brian’s work focuses on the difference between wild type and domesticated tomatoes’ resistance against pathogens. He is interested in biotechnology research and industry.

e-mail: bkubi_at_umass.edu

Trey Bourassa

Undergraduate researcher

Trey is a class of 2026 undergraduate majoring in Plant and Soil Sciences. He joined the Caicedo lab in the fall of 2022. With interests in plant metabolism, rhizosphere interactions, and botany, Trey is planning to work in both research and industry of agriculture. He is currently an apprentice to PhD student Maryam Rashidzade.

e-mail: tbourassa_at_umass.edu

Allen French

Undergraduate researcher

Allen is an undergraduate Microbiology student with an interest in plant-microbe interactions and plant pathology. He joined the lab in spring of 2023 and continued his research into the summer. His work is centered on endophytic microbe extraction and isolation from the seeds of cultivated and weedy rice. He is engaged in this work as a part of a larger project that seeks to identify and analyze the plant microbe interactions that allow weedy rice to outcompete cultivated rice. His interests beyond this project lie in gardening and microbial soil ecology.

Aaron Cashton

Undergraduate researcher

Aaron is an undergraduate Biology major with a focus in genetics and microbiology. He joined in the fall of 2023 working with undergraduate Jessica Matheson on the dodder project, analyzing haustarical attachments of different dodder species and hosts. He is further interested in biotechnology research and industry and plans to find a career there.

e-mail: acashton_at_umass.edu

Christopher Faneuff

Undergraduate researcher