People

Kadeem J. Gilbert, PhD

Kadeem is an ecologist and evolutionary biologist primarily interested in interactions between plants and other organisms, especially when those interactions are symbiotic (i.e. the associated organisms spend a significant portion of their lives in close physical contact with host plant tissues). He especially aims to examine the ways in which plants influence their symbionts by manipulating the abiotic properties of their leaf micro-environments. For his investigations, he utilizes a wide array of techniques and approaches, including field observation, manipulative experiments, phylogenetic comparative methods, DNA metabarcoding, transcriptomics, and metatranscriptomics.

Sylvie Martin-Eberhardt

PhD Student
martineb@msu.edu

B.S. | Biology/Linguistics double major | Indiana University | 2021

Sylvie is broadly interested in the adaptive significance of plant traits, particularly in the context of plant-insect interactions. They have a special interest in carnivorous plants as systems with uniquely complex insect interactions. Co-advised by Dr. Marjorie Weber in the Department of Plant Biology, they are examining anthocyanin (red pigments) in Sarracenia and is curious about the complex benefits that red pigmentation might confer to carnivorous plants, as well as convergence in red pigmented structures across lineages. Prior to joining the Gilbert lab, they completed their undergraduate in Biology and Linguistics at Indiana University, where they studied honeybee – flower microbiome ecology. They also completed a field program at Notre Dame’s field station (UNDERC) in northern Michigan, where their fascination with carnivorous plant anthocyanin was sparked by a project investigating if red venation on trap leaves guides insects to the trap surface.

Cristal López González, PhD

Cristal is a plant biotechnologist interested in understanding plant responses under different abiotic stress conditions, which involves signaling pathways, carbon metabolism, photosynthesis and transcriptional regulation at a transcriptional level. She completed her PhD at el Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados
(CINVESTAV) for her dissertation entitled “Tissue specific transcriptional
regulation of sucrose-starch metabolism in Zea mays”. Her current research project is to unravel plant responses under external pH changes by using transcriptome analysis and molecular biology approaches.

Jean-Baptiste Floc'h, PhD

Jean-Baptiste is a microbial ecologist. He studied rhizosphere microbial communities with a network approach in his dissertation entitled "Microbial interaction dynamics and variation in the subterranean microbiome of two genus of Brassicaceae: Brassica napus and Sinapsis alba". He is currently working on metatranscriptomic analysis of leaf surface microbes in response to external pH changes.

Visiting Students

Vincent Pan

Wetzel Lab
panvince@msu.edu

Vincent Pan is a PhD student in the Wetzel Lab based on main campus (Entomology/Integrative Biology departments) and does field experiments at KBS. He is broadly interested in plant-insect interactions, but especially the hidden and bizarre natural histories of plant defense and herbivore offense. He studies the drivers and consequences of variability in plant qualities, herbivory loads, and herbivore experiences. He is also interested in doing fun side projects that explore the ecology of cool insects which he is fond of (generally gallers and leaf miners).

Lab Alumni

Dillon Wheeler

REU Student
dillonwheeler@gmail.com

Dillon is an undergraduate researcher from Lee University (Biology/Anthropology double major), graduating in Fall 2022. He has a special interest in wetland plants. During the summer of 2022, he worked in the Gilbert Lab as an REU student at KBS examining the unique systems and strategies employed by carnivorous plants. Specifically, he was designing and implementing experiments investigating the local native pitcher plant population's (Sarracenia purpurea) potential capture, digestion, and utilization of leaf litter.

​Kadeem J. Gilbert, PhD

​Sylvie Martin-Eberhardt