Welcome to the website for the Zimmerman Lab at the University of San Francisco. Our research focuses on understanding the ecology and evolution of plant-associated microbes, with a special affection for foliar endophytic fungi.
The lab is led by Dr. Naupaka Zimmerman and is made up of many other wonderful folks, including undergraduate researchers, Master’s students, and sometimes even high school students or other visiting researchers.
We use a range of approaches in our research on plant-associated microbial communities. We often start with field work locally in the Bay Area, at NEON Field Sites across the country, or at USF’s Star Route Farms. After culturing and isolating microbes, we use manipulative greenhouse and growth-chamber studies, culture- and molecular-based lab work, bright field and electron microscopy, and finally a good amount of computational and bioinformatic analyses to probe microbial community composition and function.
Information about joining the lab is available here. Note that while USF does not have any PhD programs, we do have a thesis-based MS in Biology program.