Lucas O
- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at University of Wisconsin

Expertise

Genetics, Microbiology.

Bio

I am a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin Madison working on completing a Ph.D. in genetics I have spent the last five years looking at how bacteria deal with nutrient deprivation and stress. Additionally, I have studied how bacteria deal with replication-transcription conflict and how bacterial cells can overcome the conflict between these macromolecular machines. My research work has focused on DNA repair in bacteria as well as how they respond to nutrient stress. Outside of work, I enjoy boxing, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, reading, and traveling. I spent a year as the boxing coach for the U.W Madison boxing club and a semester as a teaching assistant for a genetics class. Additionally, I look to travel to Europe yearly to visit my family in Slovakia yearly as well as spend time traveling to countries I have not been to before.

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Identifying Microbial population in local environments

This project would look to collect soil or water samples in order to identify the genetic diversity of microbial populations within these environments.