Team

Current Members

Henry Chung, Assistant Professor
Born in the sunny island of Singapore, Henry obtained his Diploma in Biotechnology from Ngee Ann Polytechnic before receiving degrees from Curtin University and The University of Melbourne. He continued his Ph.D. at The University of Melbourne and a postdoc in Sean Carroll’s lab at the University of Wisconsin, Madison before coming to MSU.

Zinan Wang, Ph.D. student (2017-2021), Research Associate (2022-)
Zinan received his Master’s degree in Entomology from Louisiana State University in 2017 and did his undergraduate studies in Beijing Forestry University in China. He joined the lab in Fall 2017. His current research focuses on investigating the underlying genetic basis of desiccation resistance in desert Drosophila species.

Haosu Cong, Ph.D. student (2019-)
Haosu (Susu) received his Bachelor’s degree in Plant Protection from Northwest A&F University in 2018 and joined the lab in Spring 2019. His research focuses on elucidating the evolutionary and genetic basis of CHC dimorphism in various Drosophila species.

Elisabeth Darling, Ph.D. student (co-advised with Dr. Marisol Quintanilla) (2020-)
Elisabeth (Ellie) received her Bachelor’s degree in Entomology from Michigan State University in 2018 and started her graduate studies in Marisol Quintanilla’s lab at the Department of Entomology in the Fall of 2019. She is co-advised by Henry. Her research focuses on determining the basis of host preferences in Pratylenchus root lesion nematode species and designing molecular tools to identify and distinguish between morphologically similar species.

Samantha Kalchik, Undergraduate (2021-)
Samantha (Sam) is an undergraduate student majoring in Genomics and Molecular Genetics with a minor in German. She is working in the Chung Lab as a Professorial Assistant and is currently working with Susu with his research on CHC dimorphism in various Drosophila species.

Taylor Hori, Undergraduate (2022-)

Zhuo Chen, Ph.D. student (2022-)

Rajanikanth C, Research Associate (2023-)

Shilpi Mohanty, Undergraduate (2023-)

Alumni

Loren Campbell, Undergraduate (2022)
Loren Campbell is an undergraduate research assistant majoring in entomology at Michigan State University. She is working with Zinan studying the MtnF gene in Drosophila flies. She also works at the MSU Bughouse. She is from Canton, Michigan and she loves interacting with live bugs.

Nadia Sbisa, Undergraduate EROF intern (2022)
Nadia is currently a student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, where she is studying for two associate degrees: an AS in Mathematics and an AS in Chemical/Physical sciences. She will be transferring to a 4-year school to finish her undergraduate education, double majoring in biochemistry and piano performance. She is currently working with Susu on the evolution of sexual dimorphic CHCs through the EROF program.

Jian Pu, Research Associate (2017-2021)
Jian received his Ph.D. from Nanjing Agricultural University and started a postdoc at MSU in April 2017. Jian’s research focuses on determining how the evolution of gene regulation can lead to the diversification of CHCs and other pheromones. Jian is now a faculty member at Sichuan Agricultural University.

Cole Richards, Undergraduate (2019-2021)
Cole was an undergraduate student majoring in Microbiology with a minor in Entomology. He was working on the evolution of desiccation resistance in Drosophila species and investigating the function of fatty acyl-CoA elongase genes in D. melanogaster. Cole is now working for the Michigan Milk Producers Association.

Ellie Camerato, Ph.D. student (rotation) (2021)
Ellie hails from Akron, Ohio, and completed her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Chemistry in 2018 from Kent State University. She recently completed her Master’s in Entomology at Michigan State (2021), studying phylogenetic relationships of longhorn beetles.

Elaina Giannetti, Undergraduate (2021)
Elaina was a summer undergraduate student who worked with Zinan and Susu on identifying CRISPR/Cas9 edited Drosophila flies. Elaina is now an associate researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Mei Luo, Visiting Ph.D. student (2017-2019)
Mei (May) was a visiting Visiting Ph.D. student from Jiangxi Agricultural University in China funded by the China Scholarship council (CSC). Mei’s research focuses on the understanding how insects respond to heavy metal pollution and on the evolution of insect metallothioneins. Mei is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

Ian Paulsen, Undergraduate (2018-2019)
Ian was an undergraduate entomology student in the Chung lab from 2018-2019.

Caitlin Peffers, Undergraduate (2017-2018)
Caitlin was an undergraduate entomology major at MSU investigate the expression of pheromone synthesis genes in the Spotted Wing Drosophila, D. suzukii. She has gone on to do a Master’s degree at Ohio State University.