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ABOUT ME
Elizabeth Heath-Heckman (she/her)

I am a microbiologist and invertebrate biologist specializing in the mechanisms underlying host-microbe interactions.  After studying Staphylococcus aureus pathogenesis as an undergraduate I spent my Ph.D. studying day/night cycles in the association between the Hawaiian Bobtail squid and Vibrio fischeri, its luminescent bacterial symbiont.  My first  postdoc at UC Berkeley involved studying neurodevelopment in the leeches Helobdella austinensis and Hirudo verbana and my second let me train in genomic techniques at UCLA.  I started my lab at MSU in July of 2020 where we examine host-microbe interactions and development in the spiralia.

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EDUCATION AND TRAINING

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Effects of Bacteria and Bacterial Products on Animal Development

2017-2020

University of California, Los Angeles

Postdoctoral Scholar, Advisor: Dr. David Jacobs

Interactions Between Bacteria and the Host Cytoskeleton

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Evolutionary Development and Genomics within the Spiralia

2014-2017

University of California, Berkeley

Postdoctoral Fellow, Advisor: Dr. David Weisblat

2007-2014

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Ph.D. in Microbiology, Advisor: Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai

2003-2007

University of Chicago

B.A. in Biological Sciences, with Honors

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