The Merchant Lab

Sabeeha Merchant

Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology
Distinguished Professor of Plant Biology
Faculty Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry, UCLA
Warren C. Eveland Chair in Biological Sciences

BS and PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Post-doctoral Scholar, Harvard University
Searle Scholar; National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award; UCLA Faculty Career Development Awards; Guggenheim Foundation Fellow; Charles Albert Shull Award of ASPB; Herbert Newby McCoy Award; AAAS Fellow; ASPB Fellow; NAS Gilbert Morgan Smith Medal; ASPB Charles F. Kettering Award; Humboldt Forschungspreis (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation); Darbaker Prize from the Botanical Society of America; Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; External Member, Max Planck Institute - Molecular Plant Physiology, Elected to Germany Academy of Sciences Leopoldina

sabeeha at berkeley dot edu

Sean D. Gallaher
Research Scientist, UCLA

BS and PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

I am interested in leveraging computational biology strategies (e.g. transcriptomics, genomics, etc.) to interrogate the inner workings of green algae.

gallaher at ucla dot chem dot edu

Anne Glaesener
Specialist

B.Sc., M.Sc., Technical University Braunschweig, Germany (Biotechnology)
PhD, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

I am the lab manager and admin coordinator of the Merchant Lab.

aglaesener at berkeley dot edu

Huan Long
Visiting Scientist

B.S., Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan (Biotechnology)
PhD, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan
Researcher, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

My project in the Merchant lab focuses on isolation of acidocalcisome from Chlamydomonas, a model organism to study metal economy. Acidocalcisomes are acidic calcium-storage organelles, which are involved in polyphosphate and cation storage and in acclimation of microorganisms to environmental stress. Purification of acidocalcisomes and subsequent proteomic analysis will help us better understanding the regulation mechanism of metal homeostasis under different situations.

huanlong at berkeley dot edu

Jeff Moseley
Research Scientist

B.Sc. University of California, San Diego, Biochemistry
Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, Molecular Biology
Post-doc Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Plant Biology

Algae nutrition, photosynthesis, fatty acid and lipid biosynthesis, biotechnology applications

jlmoseley at berkeley dot edu

Stefan Schmollinger
Research Scientist

PhD, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA

I am interested in acclimation responses to environmental cues in Chlamydomonas, and also elemental analysis in bulk or spatial distribution in eukaryotes. Currently searching for the point of intersection.

schmollinger at berkeley dot edu

Daniela Strenkert
Research Scientist

PhD, University of Kaiserslautern, Germany
Postdoctoral Scholar, UCLA

I am studying how transcriptional changes are orchestrated with changes of the epigenetic landscape in the eukaryotic, single-celled green algae Chlamydomonas. Chlamydomonas is a superior reference system since it offers all advantages of a single celled, eukaryotic, microbial culture system that can be combined with genome wide profiling approaches.

dstrenkert at berkeley dot edu

Valle Ojeda Servian
Postdoctoral Scholar

B.S., M.S. and PhD, University of Seville, Spain

The objective of my project is to go beyond inventories of redox modified proteins by monitoring the proteome-wide dynamics of disulphide-dithiol status in the context of a diurnal metabolic cycle in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The findings will be important for modelling diurnal metabolic flux, which is useful for developing biotechnological strategies, whether synthetic biology or pharmacological, for manipulating metabolism for production of biofuels and bioproducts, where Chlamydomonas is a key reference organism.

valle.ojeser at berkeley dot edu