NMDC Champions

Sneha is a biomedical scientist in the Integrative Omics group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). She received her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and was a postdoctoral associate at PNNL before taking on a staff scientist role. She loves all kinds microbiomes (i.e., gut, milk, soil) and uses a combination of mass-spectrometry-based omics methods (i.e., metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics) to study microbial metabolic activity and interactions.

Ryan McClure is a microbiologist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, studying soil microbiology and host/pathogen interactions.  His work focuses on collecting large amounts of multi-omics data and then integrating it into network models that reveal interactions both within and between species.  These models are then tested in a wet lab setting to confirm and expand knowledge that details microbial community pathways, pathogenic response and microbiome systems of both human anatomical sites and natural settings.

Venkat is a senior research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developing microbial consortia from wet waste for bioproduct synthesis. He obtained his Ph.D in molecular biology and biotechnology from the University of Cincinnati, followed by postdoctoral work at NREL and the Colorado School of Mines. His work has focused on applying omics approaches on algal and fungal systems towards biofuels and bioproducts synthesis applications. His other research interests include fungal-mediated enzyme production and plastic recycling.