July 31, 2026: We say goodbye to our postdoctoral trainee, Anthony Junker, Ph.D., as he moves on to a teaching professor position at Perimeter College in Clarkston, GA. Goodluck, Anthony!

July 31, 2026: We say goodbye to our postdoctoral trainee, Anthony Junker, Ph.D., as he moves on to a teaching professor position at Perimeter College in Clarkston, GA. Goodluck, Anthony!

July 30, 2026: Honors student, Alison Myers-Beck, presented her Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) project titled, “Effects of Phage Cocktails on Crop Growth and Beneficial Plant-Microbe Interactions”. She will continue working on her project during her final year at Emory.


April 18, 2026: The Vega Lab ventured to Arabia Mountain for a lab hike! Andrew took many great pictures of the red diamorpha (Sedum smallii).



March 30, 2026: Congratulations to our excellent undergraduate researcher, Phoebe Hall, for defending her honors thesis titled, “Effects of Lysogeny on Interactions Between Bacteria and C. elegans”!

June 25, 2025 Congratulations to Carmen Alvarez, Ph.D., on defending her thesis “Evolving Differences: Variation and Diversity in Caenorhabditis elegans Hosts and Their Associated Microbial Communities”!!! Dr. Alvarez completed her Ph.D. through the PBEE program and was co-advised by Dr. Levi Morran.

August 5, 2024: Congratulations to Satya Boddu, Ph.D., on defending her thesis “Identifying the Sources of Variation in Host-Associated Microbiomes Using Caenorhabditis elegans”!!! Dr. Satya completed her Ph.D. through the Physics graduate program and was co-advised by Dr. Ilya Nemenman.


March 25, 2024: Congratulations to Jason Chen, Ph.D., on defending his thesis “Dispersal and drift drive diversity and structure in symbiont populations”!!! Dr. Chen completed his Ph.D. through the PBEE program and was co-advised by Dr. Nicole Gerardo.

Now published at mSystems: Taylor, Megan, and N. M. Vega. 2021. “Host Immunity Alters Community Ecology and Stability of the Microbiome in a Caenorhabditis Elegans Model.” MSystems 6 (2). https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00608-20.
I am very pleased to be speaking at the Boston Bacterial Meeting (June 15-16, Harvard University) and the 2017 C. elegans International Meeting at UCLA!