Sam Light
Neubauer Family Assistant Professor
Sam received a BA from Bard College and a PhD from Northwestern University for structural and biochemical studies of enzymes in microbially biosynthetic pathways. As a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley, his research addressed the basis and significance of metabolic properties of the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. Starting at the University of Chicago in 2020, his research takes a biochemical and genetic approach towards studying how beneficial and pathogenic bacteria interact with their mammalian hosts.
Noreen Bentley
Administrative Assistant
nbentley@bsd.uchicago.edu
Alexander Little
Postdoctoral Scholar
Alex is a through and through microbiologist, with his B.S. in microbiology from the University of Kansas and his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. His graduate work focused on the genetics and biochemistry of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, particularly a two-component regulatory system and its proposed sensing of the respiratory chain. He is interested in how bacteria within the anaerobic microbiome may be shuttling electrons to molecules other than oxygen in order to respire and proliferate in a particular niche.
Deepti Sharan
Postdoctoral Scholar
Deepti received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Biotechnology and completed her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Cell Biology from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India in 2019. In 2020, she moved to the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities as a postdoctoral associate and joined the Light Lab at the University of Chicago in 2022. Her previous works were related to phenotypic heterogeneity in various bacterial systems like E. coli, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Shewanella oneidensis and how that affects the response of bacteria towards different antibiotics or complex nanomaterials. In the Light lab, Deepti is interested in understanding the phenotypic heterogeneity in the gut microbes and the factors influencing colonization potential of microbes from Class Clostridia in the gut. Outside of research, she likes photography and travelling.
Christian Jacoby
Postdoctoral Fellow
Chris joined the Light Lab as a postdoctoral fellow. He holds a B.Sc. in Applied Biosciences from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and an M.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Freiburg, where he also received his Ph.D. in Microbiology. His PhD thesis focused on the discovery of novel catabolic enzymes involved in steroid degradation in denitrifying bacteria. In the Light lab, Chris studies 3-keto steroid-degrading gut bacteria, with a particular interest in the enzymes involved in this process. His overall goal is to explain how gut bacteria alter their metabolism in response to steroids and the mechanisms involved in conserving energy by using steroids as terminal electron acceptors. Outside of the lab, he is an avid mountaineer, trail runner, and thru-hiker.
Bryce Connors
Postdoctoral Scholar
Bryce received his BS in chemical engineering and BA in Spanish at the University of Rhode Island. After some time in industry, he completed his PhD in chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His graduate work focused on combining experimental and computational approaches to design microbial community composition and function. Outside the lab he enjoys live music, yoga, and cooking meals rich in both taste and dietary fiber.
Josh Stemczynski
Research Technician
Josh received a BS in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Michigan in 2022. His previous research involved characterizing lysosome transporters, and he is currently working to understand how gut microbes metabolize bilirubin and investigate its possible role in the Rnf complex.
Kaylie Scorza
Research Technician
Kaylie joined the Light Lab as an undergraduate research assistant in 2021, and received her B.Sc. in Microbiology from the University of Chicago in 2023. She is interested in investigating the impacts of host-derived lipids on the ecology and metabolic outputs of the gut microbiome. Her current project focuses on microbial metabolism of corticosteroids. Outside the lab, she enjoys drawing, studying foreign languages, and volunteering at the Zooniverse.
Shuo Huang
Graduate Student
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics
Shuo received her B.S. in biology from the University of Washington in 2019 and joined the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics program here at the University of Chicago as a Ph.D. student. Her previous projects during her undergraduate research emphasized the genetic and biochemical properties of interbacterial antagonism mediated by Type VI Secretion System (T6SS). Her current project in the Light lab focuses on the biochemistry of protein flavinylation in the extracytosolic space.
Matthew Schechter
Graduate Student
Committee on Microbiology
Matt received a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern California and an MSc in Marine Microbiology from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. He is interested in
leveraging genomic and metagenomic data to explore the ecology of evolution of microbiomes in the surface ocean and human gut. Additionally, a biproduct of his research endeavors are computational tools on the open-source ‘omics analysis platform anvio.org.
Paola Nol Bernardino
Graduate Student
Committee on Microbiology
Paola received her BS in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and joined the Microbiology Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago in 2021. Her previous projects have included working with Staphylococcus aureus and understanding small molecule metabolism by gut organisms. Her current project in the Light lab focuses on understanding the impact of gut bacteria in the production of insulin impairing molecule imidazole propionate.
Joyce Ghali
Graduate Student
Committee on Molecular Metabolism & Nutrition
Joyce is a PhD student working jointly with Drs. Sam Light and Mark Mimee. Prior to arriving at UChicago, Joyce received her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Cincinnati where she worked on developing an atomic mass spectrometry method to investigate insulin independent glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. Joyce is currently interested in investigating the effect of microbial metabolites on human health as well as developing novel microbiome therapeutics. Outside of the lab, Joyce enjoys hiking, listening to podcasts, and spending time with friends and family.
Isaac Younker
Graduate Student
Committee on Microbiology
Isaac received a B.S. in Microbiology and a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Alabama in 2020. His previous research focused on the selective isolation and characterization of jumbo bacteriophages. Isaac joined the Microbiology Ph.D. program in 2022. He is currently investigating metabolic specialization by understudied microbial taxa in the human GI tract with the goal of understanding how metabolic preferences shape both microbial community composition and the availability of metabolites for uptake by the host.
