Jake Drewes

I received my B.A. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology in 2021 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. I completed an honors thesis project and worked for a year as a post-baccalaureate research assistant in the lab of Dr. Bob Garcea. I researched the mechanisms of polyomavirus infection through 3D protein modeling of viral proteins, data analysis of host proteins isolated from nascent viral DNA, and super-resolution microscopy of subnuclear viral replication centers.

In 2022, I started the Microbiology Ph.D. program at Arizona State University and joined Heather Bean’s lab. My research is currently focused on utilizing comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography–time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC–TOFMS) and data analysis tools to elucidate volatilome differences of Chromobacterium spp. based on differences in species, strain, and type of growth media used. I am also exploring whether the cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus utilizes volatiles to attract/recruit nitrogen-fixing bacterial partners in desert biological soil crusts.