Lab Members
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Nicole L. Gottdenker, DVM, MS, PhD, Dipl. ACVP
Professor
Email: [email protected]
As a wildlife pathologist and disease ecologist, Nicole is fascinated with the theoretical and applied ecology of infectious diseases, particularly multi-host vector-borne pathogens in the context of anthropogenic environmental change. She is also interested in understanding the effects of pathogens on wildlife populations, ecosystem structure and function, and has a particular obsession with tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems. She has long term collaborations with Dr. Azael Saldana and Dr. Jose Calzada, Dr. Luis Fernando Chaves, and other members of the Parasitology Department of the Gorgas Memorial Institute, Dr. Luis Chaves, and more recently with anthropologists Dr. Julie Velasquez Runk and Dr. Susan Tanner of UGA, studying linkages between multi-scale socioeconomic inequalities, land use, and zoonotic disease spillover.
Professor
Email: [email protected]
As a wildlife pathologist and disease ecologist, Nicole is fascinated with the theoretical and applied ecology of infectious diseases, particularly multi-host vector-borne pathogens in the context of anthropogenic environmental change. She is also interested in understanding the effects of pathogens on wildlife populations, ecosystem structure and function, and has a particular obsession with tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems. She has long term collaborations with Dr. Azael Saldana and Dr. Jose Calzada, Dr. Luis Fernando Chaves, and other members of the Parasitology Department of the Gorgas Memorial Institute, Dr. Luis Chaves, and more recently with anthropologists Dr. Julie Velasquez Runk and Dr. Susan Tanner of UGA, studying linkages between multi-scale socioeconomic inequalities, land use, and zoonotic disease spillover.
Anecia Gentiles
BS Ecology
PhD Candidate, IDEAS Program, Odum School of Ecology
Anecia is a first year PhD student in the IDEAS program. After she earned her BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University, she worked on a field project investigating zoonotic pathogens in the three fruit bat species of Madagascar. She is broadly interested in exploring how human land use might influence pathogen transmission dynamics in fruit bats.
Research Interests: *Disease ecology, *Virology, *Zoonotic infections, *Disease spillover, *Anti-imperialist international science
BS Ecology
PhD Candidate, IDEAS Program, Odum School of Ecology
Anecia is a first year PhD student in the IDEAS program. After she earned her BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University, she worked on a field project investigating zoonotic pathogens in the three fruit bat species of Madagascar. She is broadly interested in exploring how human land use might influence pathogen transmission dynamics in fruit bats.
Research Interests: *Disease ecology, *Virology, *Zoonotic infections, *Disease spillover, *Anti-imperialist international science
Mauly Juliana Hoyos
BS Biology, MS Biological Sciences
PhD Candidate Ecology
I am a PhD candidate in Ecology, co-advised by Sonia Altizer. I earned my BS in Biology at Universidad del Valle and my MS in biological sciences at Universidad de Los Andes, both in Colombia. I have combined fieldwork, morphological
and molecular laboratory techniques as baseline data to explore ecological and genetic patterns of vector-borne diseases at different scales. My research has focused on trypanosomatids and flavivirus cycles at wildlife-human interfaces. I’m broadly interested in the processes underlying pathogen-vector-host interactions, ranging from
phylogenetic relationships to anthropogenic landscape changes.
BS Biology, MS Biological Sciences
PhD Candidate Ecology
I am a PhD candidate in Ecology, co-advised by Sonia Altizer. I earned my BS in Biology at Universidad del Valle and my MS in biological sciences at Universidad de Los Andes, both in Colombia. I have combined fieldwork, morphological
and molecular laboratory techniques as baseline data to explore ecological and genetic patterns of vector-borne diseases at different scales. My research has focused on trypanosomatids and flavivirus cycles at wildlife-human interfaces. I’m broadly interested in the processes underlying pathogen-vector-host interactions, ranging from
phylogenetic relationships to anthropogenic landscape changes.
Kimberly Del Carmen Archbold Ramos
DVM
PhD student– Comparative Biomedical Sciences Program
Kimberly was born in Panama City, she earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from the Universidad de Panama. She is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in the Comparative Biomedical Sciences Program and is part of the Pathology department. She had participated in research projects with the Gorgas Commemorative Institute of Health Studies (ICGES) involving gastrointestinal parasitic infections in dogs. Her graduate research focuses on the study of Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma cruzi infections in dogs in agricultural landscape mosaics. Kimberly has a strong interest in veterinary clinical pathology in research and diagnostic settings.
Research interests: *Infectious diseases, *zoonotic diseases, *Parasitic Infections, *Veterinary Pathology
DVM
PhD student– Comparative Biomedical Sciences Program
Kimberly was born in Panama City, she earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from the Universidad de Panama. She is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in the Comparative Biomedical Sciences Program and is part of the Pathology department. She had participated in research projects with the Gorgas Commemorative Institute of Health Studies (ICGES) involving gastrointestinal parasitic infections in dogs. Her graduate research focuses on the study of Leishmania spp. and Trypanosoma cruzi infections in dogs in agricultural landscape mosaics. Kimberly has a strong interest in veterinary clinical pathology in research and diagnostic settings.
Research interests: *Infectious diseases, *zoonotic diseases, *Parasitic Infections, *Veterinary Pathology
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Ben Enyetornye
PhD Student, Comparative Biomedical Sciences Ben is a veterinarian from Ghana who received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Master of Philosophy degrees from the University of Ghana (UG), Legon (Accra, Ghana). Dr. Ben Enyetornye’s PhD research aims to understand how various poultry production systems and live bird markets contribute to the presence and spread of avian respiratory pathogens in Ghana. Poultry viral respiratory pathogens pose a significant threat to poultry production worldwide. In resource-constrained countries, the impact is enormous due to diagnostic challenges. Hence, understanding the burden, spread, and transmission dynamics of these pathogens is key to implementing control and preventive measures. |
DVM Students
Natalia Rivera-Viscal
UGA Veterinary Student Scholar
She received a BA in Biology from Emory University. She is participating as the Morris Animal Foundation Student Scholar through the GVSP program at UGA with the Gottdenker Laboratory Team. Natalia’s proposed study will bridge veterinary science with geospatial analysis, ecology, and anthropology to explore the correlation between habitat deforestation and tick-borne infection in domestic dogs living in communities east and west of the Panama Canal.
Xinyi Xu
Third year UGA Veterinary Student Xinyi Xu is a rising 3rd year vet student at UGA and is working with the lab this summer as part of the Georgia Veterinary Scholars Program. Their research involves reviewing literature and extracting data to address the question of what extrinsic factors and intrinsic traits of host-viral interactions are critical to predicting viral spillover between wildlife and livestock?. They recently received a Veterinary Student Research Fellowship from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) to assist with this important research in the area of agricultural production. 
Marina Pellegrino da Silva Fifth year University of São Paulo, Brazil Veterinary Student Marina is a fifth year veterinary student at University of São Paulo (Brazil) and a member of the Wildlife Comparative Pathology Laboratory (LAPCOM-USP). She worked on a research project investigating the presence of banned pesticides in roadkill wild carnivores of the Atlantic Forest in Brazil. Her interests include conservation medicine, wildlife pathology and human dimensions of wildlife conservation. Undergraduate Researchers
Isaac Julio
Fifth year Biology student, now PhD Candidate, Oregon State University, Pullman University of the Ozarks My name is Isaac Julio, and I am from Panama. I am a current Walton scholar at the University of the Ozarks, studying biology in the track of Ecology and Wildlife. My minors are communication and religion studies. I am looking forward to getting into research; hopefully, a Ph.D. in the future. I am highly interested in the study of disease dynamics and how they change the environment they are in. I am a huge fan of the outdoor; I went to Oregon just for the purpose of hiking the mountains in the Northwest. I spent two months living in the Panamanian jungle (Darien Gap to be specific) without communication services. My primary research objective is to study the ecological and anthropogenic drivers of emerging infectious diseases in novel hosts. I am also interested in the mathematical modeling of diseases in populations. |
Visiting Researchers
Johan Manuel Calderon Rodriguez
BS, MS Biology, PhD
Johan is a biologist from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. During his bachelor studies, he worked with the genetics of Afro Colombian populations, and during his masters, with chemical ecology of plant-herbivore interaction in Physalis peruviana plants. Currently, he is doing his doctoral project about disease ecology of Chagas disease. His specific interest is about palms as sites for the establishment of Rhodnius prolixus populations (the main vector of Chagas disease in Colombia) and for the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi. For this research, he is determining the main palm tree characteristics related to vector presence and abundance, and the effect of vertebrate community associated with palms on the T. cruzi infection of vectors.
BS, MS Biology, PhD
Johan is a biologist from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. During his bachelor studies, he worked with the genetics of Afro Colombian populations, and during his masters, with chemical ecology of plant-herbivore interaction in Physalis peruviana plants. Currently, he is doing his doctoral project about disease ecology of Chagas disease. His specific interest is about palms as sites for the establishment of Rhodnius prolixus populations (the main vector of Chagas disease in Colombia) and for the transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi. For this research, he is determining the main palm tree characteristics related to vector presence and abundance, and the effect of vertebrate community associated with palms on the T. cruzi infection of vectors.
