Megan Kiedrowski, PhD
Position: Principal Investigator
Contact: mkiedro@uab.edu
Dr. Megan Kiedrowski is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She began her training as a microbiologist in the laboratory of Alexander Horswill, where her studies focused on regulation of extracellular nucleases produced by the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus aureus and the role of these enzymes in shaping biofilm formation and dispersal. She next pursued postdoctoral studies in the laboratories of Jo Handelsman at Yale University and Jennifer Bomberger at the University of Pittsburgh, where her studies incorporated evaluation of host-microbe interactions in polymicrobial communities using model systems, including insect models and airway epithelial cell co-culture models. With these tools, Dr. Kiedrowski’s group at UAB is currently focused on investigating epithelial biology and polymicrobial interactions in chronic respiratory diseases, particularly in cystic fibrosis (CF) and chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). With UAB collaborators in the Department of Microbiology and Cystic Fibrosis Research Center, Dr. Kiedrowski’s long-term goal is to further our understanding of bacterial interactions that take place between commensal and pathogenic bacteria and the role these interactions play in airway disease progression.
See Dr. Kiedrowski’s UAB Scholars profile here.
Current Lab Members
RaNashia Boone, MS
Position: Researcher IV, Lab Manager
Contact: booner@uab.edu
RaNashia was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia. She attended Norfolk State University (Go Spartans!) for her undergraduate studies earning a B.S. in Biology Pre-Professional, with a minor in chemistry. After undergrad, she moved to the Music City where she obtained her Master’s in biology with a concentration in microbiology. This is where her love for microbiology came alive. Her thesis project focused on understanding antibiotic resistance mechanisms in Acinetobacter baumannii. RaNashia’s current research role is investigating how Staphylococcus aureus and Non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae interact in polymicrobial biofilms.
Josh Huffines
Position: Fifth-year graduate student
Contact: huffines@uab.edu
Josh is from Aiken, South Carolina and attended the University of South Carolina where he earned a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Before joining the Kiedrowski lab, Josh worked as an assistant brewer at a microbrewery before spending a few years as a researcher in the Fang lab at USC, and the Niederweis lab and Scoffield lab at UAB. His current interests are polymicrobial dynamics in the upper respiratory tract and how temperature differences between health and disease affect bacterial behaviors.
Helena Heiberger
Position: UAB PREP Scholars post-baccalaureate researcher
Contact: heheiber@uab.edu
Helena Heiberger earned a B.S. in Biology at the University of North Alabama. As an undergraduate, she researched plant-microbe interactions relating to bacterial spot and bacterial speck disease, the shade avoidance response in Arabidopsis thaliana, and computationally characterized missense mutations linked to a rare genetic disorder called sitosterolemia. Currently in the Kiedrowski Lab as a UAB PREP Scholar, Helena is researching Staphylococcus aureus in the context of chronic rhinosinusitis. Outside of the lab, she loves going to the gym, hiking, and finding four-leaf clovers.
Emily Hughes
Position: Fifth-year graduate student
Contact: ehughes2@uab.edu
Emily is originally from Georgia and attended Georgia Gwinnett College as an undergraduate where she earned a B.S in Biology. She is currently a fifth-year graduate student in the lab, and her thesis project is focusing on how the host environment impacts Staphylococcus aureus antimicrobial tolerance and resistance.
Caitlyn Sebastian
Position: Fourth-year graduate student
Contact: csebasti@uab.edu
Caitlyn is from Birmingham, Alabama and attended Troy University for their undergraduate degree. She graduated in 2019 with a B.S. in Biomedical Science. She was then accepted to the Postbaccalaurate IRTA program at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland where they worked in the lab of Dr. Clifton Barry researching bacteria isolated from peat bog soil that produced antimycobacterial compounds. Afterwards, they joined UAB’s GBS Ph.D. program in the Microbiology theme where she is currently researching interactions between Staphylococcus aureus and Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae in the CF airway environment. When not in the lab she can be found at home reading and hanging out with their cats, Louis, Macaroni and Cheese.
Former Lab Members
J Harris
Position: Research technician
Contact: jharri87@uic.edu
J is from Falkville, Alabama and attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham as an undergraduate where they earned a B.S. in Immunology and Minor in Chemistry in 2021. They worked as a technician for Dr. Kiedrowski from July 2021 until July 2022. They are now working toward their Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Migue Morales
Position: UAB PREP Scholars post-baccalaureate researcher
Contact: msmorale@uab.edu
Migue is from Manati, Puerto Rico and attended the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo where he played for the Varsity soccer team and earned a B.S. in Microbiology. Before joining the lab, Migue performed undergraduate research focused on bacterial interactions with ecosystems. As a UAB PREP Scholar, his research project in the Kiedrowski Lab focused on the interactions between Staphylococcus aureus, nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae and Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum in the context of CF airways. Migue is now a PhD student in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Program at Emory University.
