Our Team

Here at the lab, we are equally committed to creating an ethical and progressive workplace as we are to solving the mysteries of the oceans. We believe that diverse perspectives are the key to collective understanding.

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RECENT NEWS

5/1/26 Congrats to new PhD candidate Lorelei Ing for passing comps!

5/16/26 LinkedIn Message from Dr. Mydlarz

9/4/25 Paper out on the application of machine learning for coral disease research

9/25/20 Dr. Laura Mydlarz, guest on Finding Genius Podcast

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Dr. Laura D. Mydlarz

Associate Dean, College of Science
Professor, Department of Biology UTA

Laura’s research focuses on coral disease and immunity, using genomic and proteomic tools to study disease resistance pathways. She is as passionate about mentoring marine scientists as she is about protecting and improving the health of corals.

Biography
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Daniele Gutierez-Andrade

Graduate Student - 4th year
BS University of Tampa

Daniela studies cnidarian immunity using transcriptomics, phylogeny, and ecological data to uncover how coral species and their symbionts vary in resistance and susceptibility. Her goal is to develop holistic frameworks for understanding and mitigating reef decline.

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Hannah’s research uses transcriptomics to understand how health and disease responses differ across species and regions in relation to white plague disease. She is also interested in reef-scale disease ecology, incorporating large-area imaging to connect molecular responses at the gene level to patterns observed across the reef ecosystem.

Graduate Student
- 4th year
BS Dalhousie University

Hannah Swain

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Lorelai uses transcriptomics to study how stony corals are impacted by thermal stress and disease, to better understand the impact on their immune systems. She also studies how two phenotypically similar maladies like disease and bleaching illicit a distinct biological response through analysis of the host, symbiont, and holobiont. 

Graduate Student
- 2nd year
BS Smith College

Lorelei Ing

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Nick is using gene expression as a tool to characterize Cnidarian responses to certain stimuli. His research interests include artificial reef management and jellyfish as a model for understanding how Cnidarian immunity.

Graduate Student
- 2nd year
BS University of Alabama

Nicholas Gleason

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Rachel is working to discover the causative agent(s) of stony coral tissue loss disase. She uses multiomics and mixomics tools to find connections within large, complex data sets. By studying each layer of the holobiont, she seeks to find answers to improve the health of coral reefs all over the world. 

RISE100 Post-doctoral Researcher
PhD University of Florida

Dr. Rachel Howard

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Whitney specializes in the impacts of climate change on diseases affecting the Caribbean sea fan, Gorgonia ventalina. Following postdoctoral research in the pharmaceutical industry, she returned to UTA as an Assistant Professor of Instruction to teach and study microbiology while participating in current microbiological assays and experiments in the Mydlarz lab.

Associate Professor of Instruction - Biology
University of Texas at Arlington

Dr. Whitney Mann-Tholen

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Undergraduate Researchers

Katelyn McCoy
Vitalia Bermudez-Vazquez
Rushika Muradi
Sloan Leischner
Jourdan Wolcott
Loralie Badoni-Popejoy

Former Lab Members

Graduate Students
Doctorate
Dr. Emily VanBuren - PhD 2024, Postdoctoral Researcher, The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD
Dr. Madison Emery - PhD 2024, Postdoctoral Researcher, Michigan State University, MI
Dr. Kelsey Beavers - PhD 2024, Research Fellow Texas Advanced Computing Center, Austin, TX
Dr. Nicholas Macknight - PhD 2022, Postdoctoral Researcher University of Miami and NOAA
Dr. Bradford Dimos - PhD 2021, NSF Post-doctoral Fellow, Washington State University
Dr. Contessa Ricci - PhD 2019, Post-doctoral Researcher, Washington State University
Dr. Lauren Fuess - PhD 2018, Assistant Professor, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX.
Dr. Whitney Mann - PhD 2014, Associate Professor of Instruction, University of Texas Arlington.
Dr. Matthew Steffenson - PhD 2014, Associate Professor, St. Edwards College, Austin, TX.
Dr. Elizabeth McGinty - PhD 2012, Instructor, Dallas College El Centro Campus

Masters
Cynthia Ross - MS 2019
Joshuah Beach-Letendre - MS 2014.

Post-doctoral Associates
Dr. Jorge Pinzon - Manager Bus Intel & Analytics, Ally Bank
Dr. Laura Hunt - Staff Scientist, Environmental Protection Agency Region 6, Dallas, TX.

Some of Our Former Undergraduate Students
Nayaliz Suliveres
Mariah Cornelio
Alexia Stokes
Ren Batiste
Gabriel Vidal
Ariana Negrete
Ivan Ponce
Caleb Butler - PhD Penn State University, Post-do Texas State University
Delania Klinger
Misty Martin
Maggi Parks - Masters, Towson State University
Bren Ledbetter
Kiran Lakhani
Lea Jinks
Carlen Stacy-lara
Sierra Clift
Humera Shakih - Alcon Laboratories
Ali Cawthorne
Charise Johnson - Masters of Science, American University
Lindsey Dornberger - PhD, University of South Florida
Stephanie Crader-Smith - PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Post-doc St. Judes Hospital
Ricardo Avina - PharmD, Texas Tech University
Theresa Hunter-king
Jenna Pieczonka- Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture, Seattle WA
Juandell Parker - Science Teacher, Dallas Independent School District
April Klein - PeaceCorps, Ghana
Jandira Lima
David Cummings
Sunaina Rao - PharmD
Regina Roy - PharmD

The Mydlarz lab has had some amazing members over the years! While its hard to say goodbye, they have moved on to some extraordinary positions. Dr. Mydlarz has trained 2 post-doctoral associates, and graduated 10 PhD's and 2 Masters students. Together, we have trained over 45 undergraduate students.