People

Anna Forsman, PhD
Microbe-Wrangling PI

I am the bird-chasing, microbe-wrangling, pipette-wielding leader of this fantastic crew of young biologists. I am the resident ornithologist here at UCF and so I work with students that are interested in various aspects of avian biology, including eco-physiology, life history, behavior, and eco-toxicology. I oversee the UCF Ornithology Collections and I serve as faculty advisor for the UCF Knighthawk Audubon Chapter. In addition to teaching Ornithology, I also teach Genomics, which encompasses the other half of my academic life. Much of my research involves some aspect of genomics, primarily DNA metabarcoding approaches but also RNAseq. As a member of the UCF Genomics & Bioinformatics Cluster, I have the opportunity to collaborate with a diversity of folks on projects ranging from microbiome analyses of amphibian skin and manatee guts to transcriptomics of house wrens and cane toads. I also established and now oversee the Biology Department’s Genomics Core Lab, where students and faculty have access to a wide array of instrumentation and bioinformatic tools. I would characterize myself as an integrative biologist with a fundamental dependence on transdisciplinary thinking and never-ending enthusiasm for broad collaborations. I utilize genomic tools and field-adapted lab assays to understand immune system development and function from a life history perspective. My students’ research connect to my own interests in many different ways: biological, technical, taxonomic. An underlying theme throughout my lab group is the development and use of laboratory techniques for understanding the biology of wild organisms.

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Current Students

Stephanie Gaspar
M.S. Student

Stephanie has now joined the Wild Symbioses Lab as a graduate student at UCF!! Although Stephanie just started the program officially (Aug 2022), she has been an active member of the lab for several years. She has contributed significantly to both field and lab aspects of the UCF Purple Martin Project, and she recently co-authored a paper on diet metabarcoding. More recently, Stephanie has become involved in the sea turtle diet metabarcoding project and, thus, works closely with labmate Chris Sarkis. Stephanie’s thesis project will consider whether exposure to carbamate insecticides influence the gut microbiome of breeding purple martins and their nestlings.

Julia Gneckow
Undergraduate Student

I am a senior Biology major with a minor in political science. I previously worked with the D4 lab in research involving the Giant apple snail (Pomacea maculate). In addition to my research in the Forsman Lab, I continue to work with the D4 lab as a research assistant, identifying insects from mosquito traps around Seminole County. It is a lot of time sitting at a microscope, but also includes some field work. In the Forsman Lab, I am currently working on a bioinformatics project, scouring literature for bacteria and viruses that are pathogenic to birds. The collected DNA sequence data will be used to interrogate microbiome data collected by Dr. Forsman from tree swallows and purple martins. I don’t have any prior experience with bioinformatics, but I am really enjoying it. Although my first love is research, I am also passionate about environmental policies. I want to help animals and the planet they inhabit, and through research and policy work with the National Audubon Society, I hope to make an impact. I am one of the founders of Knighthawk Audubon, UCF’s Audubon campus chapter and I am currently involved in Audubon’s year-long Conservation Leadership Initiative. Through this opportunity, I have met a lot of amazing people, gotten a fantastic mentor, and learned a lot of valuable information on working in conservation. When I have free time I like to read, bake, spend time with my bird, play video games, or go birding.

Thomas Hellinger
Undergraduate’ish Student

Thomas has returned to UCF after graduating in 2014 with a degree in Computer Science. He is currently taking Biology courses and gaining experience with field work so that he’ll be ready to apply to grad school in a few years! Thomas is part of the purple martin field crew. He also volunteers with Dr. Andrea Ayala when she’s in town to sample mottled ducks in the Orlando area.

Avery Kinlaw
Undergraduate Student

Avery joined the Wild Symbioses Lab after taking Genomics with Anna in spring 2022. She is currently putting her awesome lab skills to use by extracting DNA from hundreds of Florida scrub jay blood samples collected over the last few years from Cape Canaveral and surrounding mainland areas. Avery will be using these DNA samples to characterize MHC diversity and prevalence of avian malaria. When she is not working in the lab, you can find her at Gatorland!

Pranav Nadella
Undergraduate Student

Pranav is a sophomore at UCF, majoring in BioMedical Sciences. In the Forsman Lab, he works on the sea turtle microbiome project, looking at how microbial communities may relate to incidence of Chelonian herpesvirus infection. Currently, he is working on DNA extractions from kidney samples collected by the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group from turtles stranded off the coasts of Florida. These highly organized necropsy sessions provide researchers with valuable tissue samples that wouldn’t be available for collection from live turtles. Pranav will be using qPCR to screen these kidney DNA samples for the Chelonian herpesvirus.

Nyah Sterner
Undergraduate Student

Nyah recently transferred to UCF and joined the Forsman Lab to work on the UCF Purple Martin Project. Nyah is interested in genetics and so will be using DNA metabarcoding to characterize the gut microbiome of purple martins.

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Former Students

Chris Sarkis
Undergraduate Student

Graduated from UCF in 2022. I am interested in fisheries, disturbance ecology, conservation, and marine organisms and ecosystems. I am a learning assistant for Calculus 1, working with incoming freshmen with a declared STEM major to help guide them through the beginning of their academic journey. I am currently working on a project in the Forsman Lab to identify the diet of green sea turtles through DNA metabarcoding. This project will provide a new way to analyze diet in sea turtles using genomic methods. After I graduate, I hope to go to graduate school and keep teaching. Outside of school, I love to volunteer with The Pixel Fund, a local animal rescue. I also love to knit, read and travel!

Chris is now a part-time lab technician in the Wild Symbioses Lab, which we are very grateful for. She continues to work on DNA metabarcoding work in the sea turtle system. She just published her first first-author paper in summer 2022!

Lauren Puleo
Undergraduate Student

Graduated from UCF in 2021 with a major in Biology and a focus in zoology. After graduating, I will pursue a master’s degree in Biology, where I will focus on ornithological research. I currently dissect and collect research grade samples from birds of prey for a graduate student at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on heavy metal contamination and inorganic pollutants in birds of prey in Florida. Through this I have gained immense knowledge about bird anatomy and how to implement a dissection protocol to properly obtain and store samples without contamination. I am also the publicity officer for a registered student organization, the Knighthawk Audubon UCF Campus Chapter. I am now participating in Audubon’s yearlong Conservation Leadership Initiative, where I get to connect with local chapter members and learn about the importance of applying science, education and advocacy to conserve the worlds birds. Once a week I volunteer at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey where I get to work the admissions window and educate people about the rehabilitation and conservation of raptors. In my free time, I enjoy cooking, going outdoors, traveling, and of course birding!

Lauren is now a M.S. student at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), studying Hudsonian Gotwit migration biology in the lab of Dr. Nathan Senner.

Isabel Rojas
Undergraduate Student

Graduated from UCF in 2021 as a pre-vet student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Biology. I just finished a clinic internship at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey where I got to learn how to rehabilitate and care for injured raptors. It was an incredibly valuable experience since I am also a pre-veterinary student who’s interested in wildlife medicine. At the center, I was also able to get trained on how to read blood slides and will be utilizing my skills in hematology to read scrub jay slides that Dr. Forsman has collected. I am very excited to get experience in research this year and work with Dr. Forsman and her team.

Isabel graduated from UCF in Spring 2021 but is still an active member of the Wild Symbioses Lab where she works on cytology and detecting/quantifying parasites as part of both Florida Scrub Jay and Purple Martin projects.

Victoria Allanson
Undergraduate Student

Graduated from UCF in Spring 2020 with a major in biology and a minor in health sciences. I started working in Dr. Forsman’s lab in the fall of 2019. It has been observed that mealworms are able to consume and digest polystyrene foam, so I have been working on dissecting out the GI tract of these mealworms to see if the polystyrene has an effect on the DNA of their gut microbes. I’m currently the treasurer of the Wildlife Society at UCF. I have an interest in animals and have spent a lot of time volunteering for different animal shelters and rescue organizations. I have also volunteered with the giraffes at the Central Florida Zoo! I interned at Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge in the summer of 2018 and continued volunteering for about a year. I spent the last 4 years on the Hunt Seat Team at UCF and love to spend my free time horseback riding! I also love to travel and spend time outdoors!

Brian Cammarano
Undergraduate Student

Graduated from UCF in Spring 2020, majoring in Biology with a focus on Ecology, Evolutionary and Conservation Biology. Throughout my time as a college student, I have been involved with a handful of amazing organizations that have helped me acquire a deeper understanding of all the opportunities available to me within the sciences! A few highlights of my past experiences include: assisting with bird banding for the Cape Florida Banding Station at Bill Baggs State Park during Fall migration, volunteering for the Frost Museum’s Bird of Prey Center in a rehabilitation clinic with injured and debilitated raptors, participating in point counts of nesting White-crowned Pigeons on the barrier islands of Biscayne National Park, as well as being a Grassland Songbird Technician for Montana State University where we located and monitored nests of various declining grassland songbird species such as Baird’s Sparrow, Chestnut-collared Longspur, McCown’s Longspur and Sprague’s Pipit on their breeding grounds in the open prairie of Eastern Montana. All these incredible experiences have helped me realize my true passion for Ornithology. Over the summer, I contributed to creating an electronic database of all the collection birds here at UCF. I am currently a volunteer for the Wekiva Basin Banding Station located at Lake Lotus Park where I will be analyzing the invaluable data from this station to come up with a topic to present at SURE in the Spring of 2020 with the guidance of Dr. Forsman. Outside of academics, I can be found out in the middle of nowhere looking for rare birds, cooking with whatever ingredients I can scavenge for in the fridge, and painting with acrylics on canvas!

Brianna Millevoi
Undergraduate Student

Graduated from UCF in Spring 2020 as a Biology major with a focus in pre-veterinary medicine. I have been a part of the pre-vet club here on campus for almost 5 years now and I served as secretary on the E-board for the 2017-2018 year. I was a member of the Western Equestrian team here on campus for my first two years, and I was a volunteer at the Central Florida Zoo’s nutrition department. I currently work as a vet tech at Oviedo Veterinary Care and Emergency, and I just applied to veterinary schools for the first time! I am interested in public health, wildlife animal forensics, exotic animal/zoo medicine, marine mammal/non-mammal medicine and laboratory animal medicine. I was a 2019 summer intern at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, where I learned how to care for injured raptors and perform in house lab work, such as manual complete blood counts. I am now applying my blood counting skills by working in Dr. Forsman’s lab by assessing Florida Scrub Jay slides. I am determining the number of white blood cells overall on the slide and also counting how many of each specific white blood cell that is present, such as basophils, eosinophils, neutrophils, and more, to determine the overall immune status of the Scrub Jay the sample came from. I am also on the lookout for hemoparasites, such as Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon (aka bird malaria). In addition to working for Dr. Forsman, I also assist in performing raptor necropsies to obtain organ samples for heavy metal testing at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey. Outside of academics, I love to play video games and horseback ride!