Alumni - Voiniciuc Lab

Previous members at UF

If you are looking for current team members: click here.

Ryan T. Cantrell

Position: Undergraduate student (Microbiology and Cell Science); Internship (2023.10-11); Undergraduate research credits (2024.08 – 2024.12)

Next Position: 🏆 2025 IFAS Summer Research Internship (UF Indian River REC)

About me: Ryan completed a 4-week internship as a first-year microbiology and statistics major in the Fall of 2023. He assisted with molecular biology and yeast genetic engineering experiments and returned in fall of 2024 to work yeast glycoengineering through gene editing.

Outside the lab: Exploring the outdoors and a playing guitar.

John Williams

Position: PMCB Program Ph.D. Rotation (2024.08 – 2024.11)

Next position: Ph.D. Rotation with in the Nadakuduti lab (Environmental Horticulture)

About me: I attended UF for my bachelor’s degree from 2014 to 2018. Biotechnology and plant breeding were what drove me towards my major in plant science, focusing on genetics. During my undergrad, I worked with peach and citrus in a breeding laboratory as a tissue culture technician primarily responsible for performing embryo rescue with peaches, and then later as a lab assistant working with a maize genetics lab, making plant crosses, genotyping, and assisting with a variety of projects. Following graduation, I wanted to get some exposure to other areas of molecular biology, so I branched out into a lab tech position in an immunology lab within UF’s Department of Oral Biology studying miRNA in the human immune response and HEp-2 immunofluorescent assays with fluorescent microscopy. Now I am returning to the plant sciences in the Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology program, so I can better understand plants and their complexities. Afterwards, I want to contribute what I learn to the biotechnology industry for crop improvement.

Jon Golan

Position: Genetics and Genomics Program Ph.D. Rotation (2024.08 – 2024.10)

Next Position: G&G Program Ph.D. Rotation with Wenjun Xie (College of Pharmacy)

🏆NSF GRFP Fellow

Education: B.Sc. Biotechnology, B.Sc. Entomology (University of Georgia)

About me: My B.Sc. research involved working in two entomology labs. First, I studied conservation biological control of an invasive leaf beetle using genetic surveillance and statistics, publishing two papers on the subject. Second, I worked in an aphid-symbiont lab, where I developed my interest in microbiology and synthetic biology. This project, which investigated symbiotic bacteria as an avenue for biotechnology, made me a graduate fellow of the National Science Foundation. As a Ph.D. student in Genetics and Genomics, I aim to strengthen my synthetic biology toolkit, from computationally optimizing proteins to bioengineering gene circuits and switches.

Outside the lab: nature and reading

Victor Xu

Position: Visiting High School Student (2024.06 – 2024.10)

🏆Center for Precollegiate Training and Education (summer 2024)

Victor successfully completed a research exchange at the University of Florida on the automation of molecular biology procedures using liquid handling robots and won the Best Overall Poster Award at the closing ceremonies of the CPET (ufl.edu) program. Victor contributed some additional tasks towards Biofoundry while completing his high school degree in Canada in the fall of 2024.

Ania M. Granadino

🔊 (AHN-yah Gran-ah-dee-noh)

Position: Visiting Scholar (2024.01- 2024.04)

Next position: M.Sc. in Horticulture Science at the University of Georgia

Ania joined us as for a full-time research internship as a fourth year Agricultural Science and Production at Zamorano University. She aimed to broaden her knowledge of genetically modified organisms and plant molecular biology, exploring how this can be a valuable asset in addressing challenges related to agriculture.

Outside the lab: horseback riding and reading.

Yunhan Wang

Position: PMCB program Ph.D. rotation (2023.11 – 2024.02)

Next position: Ph.D. student in the Wang Lab (Plant Pathology)

Yunhan joined us for a 3-month rotation after completing her B.Sc. in Forest Science (University of British Columbia, 2020-2023), following a Bachelor of Agriculture in Forestry (Nanjing Forestry University, 2017-2020). She worked on bioengineering antimicrobial peptides in yeast.

Outside the Lab: watching concerts, detective novels

Madalen Robert

Position: Ph.D. Student (IPB Halle, Germany) and DAAD Visiting Scholar at UF (2020.02 – 2023.07)

Next Position: Sales and Scientific Advisor with Biotrend (CliniSciences Group)

Madalen developed carbohydrate binding modules (CBM) as tools for designer cell walls and now works in the industry.

Read more about the DAAD: German Academic Exchange Service

Samarth Raipal

Position: OPS Automation Assistant (2023.05- 2023.06)

As a Computer Science master’s student at the University of Florida, Samarth assisted us with the initial setup of the Opentrons OT-2 hardware and protocols.

Elyse Winne

Position: B.Sc. Student Internship and Supervised Research Credits (2022.09 – 2023.05)

Next position: UF/IFAS Summer Research Internship (Eric Triplett lab, UF) and OPS Research Assistant (Andrew Hanson lab, UF)

Elyse joined the lab as a third year B.Sc. in Microbiology student interested in using microorganisms as models for solving relevant issues in society. While working in the Designer Glycans lab, Elyse attended the 2023 NIAMRRE Annual Conference (Addressing the Gaps in Antimicrobial Resistance, AMR) and was awarded a competitive UF/IFAS Summer Research internship. In the future, she plans to pursue graduate studies and biological research in industry.

Read more about the paid UF/IFAS Summer Research program.

Lianna Larson

Position: B.Sc. Student Internship (2022.09 – 2023.05)

Lianna joined the lab as a first-semester B.Sc. Student in Biological Engineering and hopes to contribute to the development of biofuels. She contributed to the discovery and characterization of a new peeling walls mutant in Arabidopsis.

Julia Moncrieff

Position: B.Sc. Research Scholar and Supervised Research Credits (2022.09 – 2023.05)

Next position: Ph.D. student in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of South Florida

🏆University Research Scholars Program First Semester Research Award

Julia joined us from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at the University of Florida and aims to pursue a future career in biomedical research. She received the highly competitive URSP Research Award for her excellent work.

Alexa Young

Position: B.Sc. Student Internship (2023.01 – 2023.05)

Alexa spent a semester in our lab during the first year of her B.Sc. in Microbiology and Cell Science, minoring in Bioinformatics. She wants to learn more about the field of genetics and genetic engineering.

Dr. Fang Bai

Position: Biologist IV at UF (2022.09 – 2022.12)

Next position: Research Geneticist (USDA ARS)

Fang has been working on the genetic and epigenetic regulation of maize seed development in the Department of Horticultural Science since 2012 and assisted with the Designer Glycans lab start up at UF.

Publications: ResearchGate

Rafena Boyd

Position: B.Sc. Student Internship (2022.09 – 2022.12)

Rafena joined the Designer Glycans as a 4th year Microbiology and Cell Science B.Sc. student with a minor in African American Studies. Rafena gained experience with molecular biology, particularly cloning, and is interested to pursue a future career in medical pathology.

Tanya Lubbe

Position: B.Sc. Student Internship (2022.09 – 2022.10)

Tanya completed a short research internship as part of her third-year undergraduate studies in Microbiology and Cell Science. Tanya is interested in learning more about genetics and biochemistry, aiming to pursue graduate education abroad in the future in one of these fields.