People
Melanie Spero
Assistant Professor
she/her | mspero[at]uoregon.edu
Melanie grew up on the East Coast and earned a BS in Biotechnology from Rutgers University, where she was a member of the rowing team. She discovered her love for bacterial physiology while earning her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Dr. Tim Donohue’s lab. As a postdoc in Dianne Newman’s lab at Caltech, she began studying how pathogen physiology affects human health outcomes. She joined the University of Oregon faculty in 2021.
Alison Coluccio
Lab Manager / Research Technician
she/her | acolucci[at]uoregon.edu
A new transplant to Oregon, Alison has worked with sea urchins, frogs, plants, phage, bacteria and fungi in labs from central Mexico to coastal Maine. She loves doing cool stuff with DNA and taking pictures with 10μm scale bars. She's in love with the big trees of Oregon; her favorite local charismatic megaflora (so far) is the Coast Redwood.
Susannah Lawhorn
Graduate Student
she/her | slawhorn[at]uoregon.edu
Susannah earned a B.A. in biology from Bowdoin College in 2019. She then worked as a lab tech in the McFall-Ngai/Ruby labs studying the squid-vibrio symbiosis, where she discovered her love for bacterial physiology. She started at the University of Oregon in the Fall of 2023. She loves working in the Spero lab, where her current focus is biofilm formation in the obligate anaerobe, Finegoldia magna.
Francia Lopez Palomera
Graduate Student
she/her | fll[at]uoregon.edu
Francia was born and raised in Long Beach, California. She earned a BS in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics from UCLA. There, she worked with Dr. Thao Nguyen in an electrophysiology lab where she investigated cardiovascular research using a high fat diet rat model and a heart regeneration zebrafish model. After graduating, she worked at the biopharmaceutical company KitePharma a Gilead Company, where she worked as a microbiologist technician, aiding in the development and distribution of CAR T-cell therapies for cancer patients. After a few years, she returned to research, currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Oregon in the Institute of Molecular Biology. Outside of lab, Francia loves trees, the Willamette river, and her pug, Tofu.
Sierra Scamfer
Graduate Student
she/her | sscamfer[at]uoregon.edu
Sierra grew up in the PNW and earned a BS in Biology from the University of Utah in 2021. She then worked as a lab tech there in the Hilgendorf Lab studying the effects of high fat diet on preadipocyte primary cilia. She developed an interest in microbiology and is currently pursuing her PhD at the University of Oregon in the Spero Lab! Inside the lab Sierra enjoys studying the regulation of biofilm formation in Finegoldia, and outside of lab she loves hiking, camping, and traveling with friends and family.
Connor Siggins
Graduate Student
he/him | csiggins[at]uoregon.edu
Connor grew up in Virginia and earned a B.S. In Chemistry with a specialization in biochemistry from UVA in 2021. After graduating, he worked as a research technician in the LaMantia lab studying brain development in a mouse model of 22q11 deletion syndrome. He started at the University of Oregon in the fall of 2024, where he decided to join the Spero lab to study mechanisms of chlorate toxicity and antibiotic synergy in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Karis Lincoln
Undergraduate Student Researcher
she/her | karisl[at]uoregon.edu
Karis is an undergraduate student working towards a B.S. in Neuroscience and B.S. in Human Physiology with a minor in Spanish. After graduating from the University of Oregon, she hopes to attend medical school to pursue a career in Neurology. She is currently exploring the effects of antibiotics on bacterial growth under anaerobic conditions. She enjoys an active lifestyle outdoors and reading in her free time.
Cass Speyer
Undergraduate Student Researcher
she/her | cspeyer[at]uoregon.edu
Cass is an undergraduate working on her degree in human physiology, with a minor in chemistry. After undergrad, she wants to go to medical school, and one day become an anesthesiologist. She really loves working in the Spero lab and is focusing on learning the pros and cons of biofilm formation!