lAB   

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF  SOUTH FLORIDA

SOPHIE SIPPRELL, B.S., Ph.D. Sophie earned her B.S. in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the Fall of 2020. She began her research career as an undergraduate working in the lab of Dr. Ian Marriott investigating the inflammatory immune response of resident bone cells during staphylococcal osteomyelitis, which ultimately led her to pursue her Ph.D at UNC Charlotte. During her graduate studies under the direction of both Dr. Ian Marriott and Dr. Brittany Johnson, Sophie expanded upon her undergraduate work, investigating the role of inflammatory leukocytes recruited by resident bone cells in mediating tissue damage and inflammation during staphylococcal osteomyelitis as well as the therapeutic potential of an FDA-approved neurokinin-1 antagonist to ameliorate disease severity that is exacerbated by the neuropeptide substance P during infection. Sophie presented her findings at local, regional, and national conferences. Most notably, she was selected as one of 15 trainees to present in a Major Symposium block at the American Association of Immunologists in 2024. She was also the recipient of the Lucille P. and Edward C. Giles Dissertation Award for 2024-2025. Sophie graduated with her Ph.D. in the spring of 2025 and shortly after joined the Shaw lab to continue investigating host responses to S. aureus infection, particularly as it pertains to proteases and virulence factors, in an effort to better patient outcomes.

SYDNEY GRANACK, B.S. Sydney earned her B.S in Cell and Molecular Biology and a Minor in Infection Control from the University of South Florida (USF) in Fall of 2024. During her undergraduate degree, she researched the secondary metabolites of marine invertebrates and their potential in natural product science under Dr. Bill Baker. This project was in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History and was the topic of her Honors Thesis. In addition, Sydney did virtual bioinformatic research under Dr. Vladimir N Uversky, studying ocular intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and their function as antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Alongside her academics, Sydney was a D1 distance runner through her four years at USF. She joined the Shaw Lab in Spring of 2025 as a doctoral student and is currently conducting research on how S. aureus virulence factors influence adherence to, and invasion of, the vasculature.

Coming Soon:

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  • Jewelia Keller
  • Gabriela Carbone

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​​MARTINA BOAGLIO. Martina is a junior at USF majoring in Cellular and Molecular Biology. She joined the Shaw lab as a volunteer in Spring 2024 and is currently working under the guidance of Rachel, studying two-component regulatory systems in S. aureus. After graduating, she plans to attend graduate school to pursue an immunology degree to learn more about the immune system across all organisms and various infectious diseases​


SELINA WALKER. (Now a graduate student).


CONNOR "SUSHI" MOYNIHAN. ​Connor is a former U.S. Army combat medic and a rising senior at the University of South Florida majoring in Cell and Molecular Biology. He joined the Shaw Lab in Fall 2024 as a volunteer under the mentorship of Mary-Elizabeth, investigating the role of SSR42 in regulating S. aureus virulence factors as well as studying characteristics of antibiotic resistance in clinical isolates. Upon graduation, he plans to attend medical school and utilize his research experience in clinical settings.




EMILEE MUSTOR, B.S. Emilee graduated with a B.S in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of South Florida in fall 2020. During her time at USF, she explored many different areas of research, including auditory research at the Global Center for Hearing and Speech, bacterial cell division in Dr. Prahathees Eswara’s lab and bioinformatics under the directive of Dr. Richard Pollenz. Upon graduating, she worked as a teacher at Lockerbie College in Barbados. Emilee joined the Shaw Lab in fall 2021 as a doctoral student, where her work focuses on the targeted detection of virulence factors and proteolysis during infection within animal models.

​ALLISON RICHARDS, B.S. Allison graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Criminology in the Spring of 2023. During her time as an undergraduate Allison worked predominantly with forensic studies, interning at the National Forensic Science Technology Center. While doing so, she wrote her honors thesis discussing the effects of time on fingerprint deposition after alcohol-based hand sanitizer application. Allison joined the Shaw lab in fall of 2024 as an M.S. student, working on accessory subunits of RNA polymerase subunits in Staphylococcus aureus.

GRADUATE STUDENTS


CLAUDIA ZAMORA CISNERO B.S. Claudia graduated with a B.S in Cellular and Molecular Biology from USF in the Summer of 2022. During her undergraduate career, she explored bacteriophage research, genome annotation, and bioinformatic analyses under the direction of Dr. Hopson-Fernandez. She later researched the effects of artificial sweeteners in B-lymphoma derived cells in the combined lab headed by Dr. Jones-Mason. Upon graduation, she taught advanced biology at the Hillsborough Academy of Math and Science. Claudia first joined the Shaw Lab as a volunteer in the Fall of 2023, became a MS thesis student in the lab in summer 2024, and progressed to the doctoral program in Spring 2025. Her main research goal is to uncover novel host-pathogen interaction events through the use of proteomic methodologies.

EMILY FELTON, B.S., Ph.D. Emily graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Tampa in spring 2020, with a B.S. in Molecular Biology. During the summer of 2019 Emily participated in an REU at the University of Georgia in the microbiology and entomology departments. There she worked towards using the microbiome of kissing bugs to control the vector for Chagas disease. Emily joined the Shaw lab in fall 2020 as a doctoral student, working on phenogenomic heterogeneity in clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus. She worked extensively with the microbiology team at Tampa General Hospital, characterizing drug resistance and virulence traits of circulating contemporary isolates. During her time in the program, Emily was awarded the 2025 Beth Jones-Mason Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award. She successfully defended her dissertation during the summer of 2025, and remains in the Shaw Lab as a postdoc, continuing her work on genomic characterization of clinical strains.

JULIA MONCRIEFF, B.S. Julia graduated with a B.S. in Biology from the University of Florida in Spring 2024. In the first year of her undergraduate studies, she worked in the Designer Glycans Lab led by Dr. Cǎtǎlin Voiniciuc studying mannanase mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana. In her second year, she worked in the lab of Dr. Melike Caglayan studying amino acids that control DNA end alignment in DNA ligases, completing her honors thesis in spring 2024. She also worked in the lab of Dr. Julie Meyer in her second year as a Florida Sea Grant Intern, analyzing relationships and changes over time in the microbiome of coral. In Spring 2024, Julia was inducted into the University of Florida Honors Program Hall of Fame. Julia joined the Shaw lab in Fall 2024 as a doctoral student, exploring factors that contribute to complicated S. aureus bacteremia.

JESSICA JACKSON, B.S., Ph.D. Jessica graduated with a BS in Microbiology and a minor in criminology from USF in the Spring of 2019. During her undergraduate career she worked in the Shaw lab alongside Jessie testing compounds for activity against the ESKAPE pathogens and their ability to eradicate biofilms. She remained in the lab as a doctoral student starting in the fall of 2019. During her doctoral studies she worked on the regulation of secreted protease production in clinical isolates of S. aureus USA300, uncovering novel circuits that break new ground on not only protease production but virulence factors in general. She produced a wealth of papers, including a collaboration with former Shaw Lab trainee Andy Weiss in the Skaar lab, developing a novel high-throughput system to study gene regulation. She won both the 2024 Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher Award and the 2024 Beth Jones-Mason Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award during her time in the program. Following graduation, Jessica chose to remain the Shaw Lab to finish off her projects as they relate to protease regulation.

LOGAN DESILETS, B.S. Logan graduated with a B.S. from Worcester State University in the Fall of 2021. During his time as an undergraduate, he worked in an interdisciplinary research group under Dr. Aleel Grennan studying the Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) and the relationship between pollinator visits and pollen counts. After graduating, he was employed at Athena Diagnostics as a Medical Lab Scientist, working on a high throughput DNA genotyping process. He joined the Shaw Lab in the Fall of 2024 as a doctoral student, with a focus on virulence factor detection using targeted MS.​

​SELINA WALKER, B.S. Selina graduated with a B.S in Microbiology from the University of South Florida in the Spring of 2025. During her undergraduate studies, she explored diverse research avenues, including environmental biotechnology under Dr. Sarina Ergas and the investigation of cell signaling pathways in marine sea sponges under Dr. Meera Nanjundan. She joined the Shaw lab as a volunteer in the Fall of 2023 under the mentorship of Mary-Elizabeth Jobson and in Spring 2024, completed her honors thesis studying transcriptional regulatory networks in S. aureus. In the Spring of 2025, she won the Microbiology Student Excellence Award before joining the Shaw lab as a doctoral student Fall 2025. Her work focuses on characterizing gene regulation pathways of regulatory RNAs in S. aureus.

RACHEL WASHBURN, B.S. Rachel majored in Microbiology and minored in Public Health Infection Control at USF. She was a member of Shaw Lab since her Freshman year in 2018, working alongside Dr. Torres. She completed her honors thesis investigating the structure-function relationship of the RNA polymerase delta subunit in S. aureus. She also served as the CMMB Club’s President and the Scuba Club’s Public Relations Officer. She graduated with her BS degree in Spring 2022, and we were lucky enough that Rachel chose to stay on in the Shaw Lab for her doctoral studies. Her dissertation work focuses on the differential expression of regulatory circuits between in vitro and in vivo environments.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

POSTDOCS

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

LINDSEY "LES" SHAW, B.Sc. (Hons), Ph.D. When Les was 13 he had major surgery to implant pins in his hip, correcting a growth defect. Unfortunately, as with a lot of surgeries, this resulted in a S. aureus biofilm infection caused by the indwelling pins that was not fully resolved until they were removed 5 years later. As such, Les has been in and/or around hospitals, bacteria, and antibiotics for a good portion of his life. This led him to pursue a B.Sc. (Hons) degree at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK), which he obtained in 1999. For his honors thesis, he worked in the laboratory of Dr Richard James (now at Nottingham University, UK) performing a structure-function study of E. coli colicins. From there, he conducted his doctoral work in the laboratory of Dr Simon Foster at the University of Sheffield (Sheffield, UK). Here he focused on the role of secreted proteases in the virulence of S. aureus - the bacterium that caused him so many problems early on in life. As part of his doctoral training he spent the winter of 2001 studying in the laboratory of Dr Jan Potempa at the Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Upon returning from Poland, and completing his PhD studies, he moved to the laboratory of Dr James Travis at the University of Georgia in fall 2002. Here he worked on the proteolytic enzymes of S. aureus, as well as those from a number of other pathogenic bacteria. In the summer of 2006, Les left UGA and moved to the University of Missouri-Columbia as a research assistant professor in the laboratory of Dr George Stewart, working on the quorum sensing systems of S. aureus. The following summer, in 2007, Les departed UMC, and joined the faculty of USF as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology & Molecular Biology. He served as departmental director of graduate studies from 2009 - 2018, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure during the summer of 2012, and became a Full Professor in summer 2016. Les was appointed departmental Associate Chair in the fall of 2019, and served as Department Chair for AY 2021 - 2022, before returning to his role as Associate Chair. He was named the Richard & Patricia Wood Endowed Chair in Natural Sciences in the Summer of 2023. Les holds joint appointments in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the USF Morsani College of Medicine as well as in the Department of Global Health at the USF College of Public Health  Professionally, he became a permanent member of the NIH Bacterial Pathogenesis (BACP) study section in 2018, and the Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (MID) study section in 2022. Les was elected as a AAAS Fellow in 2019 and as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (ASM AAM) in 2025. He was named Director of the USF Center for Antimicrobial Resistance (CAMRA) in 2024. As a result of those early years spent dealing with a S. aureus infections, and taking endless antibiotics, the Shaw lab appropriately works on the virulence mechanisms of this dangerous pathogen, whilst at the same time seeking to develop new antibiotics for the treatment of drug resistant bacterial infections.