Dr Bassem Allam (MADL’s director)

Dr Allam was hired at Stony Brook University (SBU) as an Assistant Professor in 2003, and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2009 and to Professor in 2015. Before joining SBU, he served as a Teaching and Research Associate at the University of Guadeloupe (2001), and the University of Angers -France- (2000), and as a Post-doctoral Associate at Rutgers University NJ (1998-1999). He received his PhD from the University of Western Brittany (Brest, France) in 1998 studying clam pathobiology. General interests include host-microbe interactions in marine invertebrates in the framework of host-pathogen and predator-prey interactions. He is particularly interested in studying the early interactions between pathogenic microorganisms and their hosts at interfaces. Other primary interests include immunobiology and resistance of marine invertebrates to infectious diseases, and how the environment impacts the resistance processes. Dr Allam teaches graduate and undergraduate courses related to his domain of expertise. Please visit Allam’s webpage for more information about his activities.

Dr Emmanuelle Pales Espinosa, Research Associate Professor

Dr Pales Espinosa is a Research Scientist and adjunct Associate Professor at Stony Brook University and an active member of the MADL. She obtained a PhD degreee in Marine Biology from the University of Nantes (France) working on microalgae ecology and effects of biotic and abiotic factors on microalgae assemblages. Her post-doc (in France and in the US) focused on the interactions between suspension-feeding bivalves and their preys. She is co-PI and lead PI on several projects with Allam with research spanning various aspects of bivalve-microbe interactions with a  focus on the mechanisms of particle selection in suspension-feeding bivalves.

Dr. Denis Grouzdev, Research Associate Professor

Denis is an experienced scientist in genomics, computational biology and bioinformatics, with expertise spanning microbiology, biotechnology and molecular biology. He obtained his Ph.D. in biotechnology in 2014 at Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia). His dissertation work was conducted in the laboratory of Professor Konstantin Skryabin on the molecular basis of bacterial magnetic particles biotechnology. The main branch of his research was exploring the origin, evolution and mechanisms of microbial biomineralization, microbial magnetotaxis and their ecological functions. After graduation he worked on various aspects of microbial and animal genomics in academic and private settings. Research developed at the MADL targets the genomic characterization of infectious microbes and their shellfish hosts, with a special focus on host-parasite interactions, genome-wide association studies and genomic selection.