Our lab trains undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students who are interested in leading or contributing to projects in fermentation microbiology. Those interested in joining the lab should contact Dr. Curtin.
PI: Associate Professor Chris Curtin
Dr. Curtin specializes in the application of high-throughput DNA sequencing, microbial physiology and metabolomics to understand ecology of fermentation systems and evolution of fermentation microorganisms. He completed his PhD in Biotechnology at Flinders University of South Australia, before joining the Australian Wine Research Institute in 2004 as a post-doctoral fellow. Following promotion to Research and then Senior Research Scientist, from 2011 Dr. Curtin lead AWRI’s Biosciences team of 15-20 staff scientists as Research Manager - Biosciences, until joining OSU in 2016. In addition to performing research on fermentation microbes, Dr. Curtin enjoys using them at home to make sourdough, kefir, kombucha, tepache, and various fermented vegetables, and experimenting with their use in cooking. On the weekend when time (and Oregon’s weather) permits, you’ll find Dr. Curtin on the golf course, or possibly at one of the numerous wine/beer/distilled spirit tasting rooms we are lucky to enjoy in the state of Oregon.
Graduate Students
Tess Snyder is originally from St. Louis, Missouri and she graduated from Purdue Univeristy in 2022 with her B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Fermentation Science. During her time there she gained experience through industry internships ranging from vineyard soil microbiology to bioprocessing for agricultural products. She is now pursuing a M.S. in Food Science and Technology, her project focusing on the connection between vineyard microbial ecology and wine spoilage. In her free time, Tess enjoys baking, playing board games and going on ski trips.
Michael Sonza – M.S. Graduate Student
Michael is a current graduate student and research assistant in Dr. Curtin’s lab. Michael received his B.S. in Food Science and Technology from the University of California – Davis in 2014 and worked in both quality assurance and product development roles for the following six years. He returned to academics in 2021 and received a post-baccalaureate degree in Bioresource Research here at OSU in 2023. Michael enjoys home fermenting including home brewing beer and kombucha and fermenting vegetables.
He is currently investigating the strain diversity of Brettanomyces bruxellensis in grape vineyards and winery cellars. Methods to be utilized in this project include qPCR, RFLP, meta-barcoding, and comparative genomics.
Alyssa Thibodeau is a M.S. student in the Food Science and Technology program working on developing an organic acid-based beverage using whey from cheesemaking and a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) system. Alyssa is interested in all things fermentation but finds most passion in studying dairy sciences with an emphasis in sustainability and product development. She wishes to continue research in the dairy industry as a PhD student or R&D technician. She one day hopes to own a farmstead creamery.
Alyssa is originally from Arizona and received her Associate's in Applied Science at Mesa Community College (MCC) in 2017 and B.S. at Oregon State University (OSU) in Food Science and Technology with options in food and fermentation science and minors in chemistry and microbiology in 2022. At MCC in 2016, she worked with Dr. Timothy Minger on extracting nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) from creosote bush and tested its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. She worked for the Portland Creamery (2018-2019), La Mariposa Cheese (2019-2020), and the OSU Creamery as a cheesemaker (2020-2022). She also worked for several small-scale raw cow and goat milk dairies in Arizona and Oregon. From 2020 to 2022, she worked in Dr. Si Hong Park's lab at OSU assisting graduate students and working on her own project aiming to determine the influence of milking and cleaning procedures on the quality and microbiota of raw goat milk. During the summer of 2023, she interned at Jasper Hill farm in Greensboro, VT and assisted in all areas of cheese production. Alyssa is also the captain of the 2023-2024 IFTSA Smart Snacks Product Development team and College Bowl team at Oregon State, and a member of the 2023-2024 Dairy Management Inc. (DMI) New Product Competition Yo-Go Girls! team, chosen as a top six finalist for the academic year. Outside of the academic world, you can find her spending time with her daughter, doing jiu-jitsu and muay thai, cooking, fermenting, gardening, and caring for her animals.
Linktree: @alyssa.thibodeau | Linktree
Undergraduate Students
Erik Jacobsen is an undergraduate student with a major in Microbiology and a minor in Chemistry who joined the lab in 2023. He has 20 years of experience as a Medical Laboratory Technician with the US Army and loves learning new things. Erik rides a bicycle everywhere and in his spare time likes to read sci-fi, eat spicy things, and ferment beer, wine, tepache, sourdough, hot sauce, kimchi, sauerkraut, butter, kefir, vinegar, and cheese that’s not very good yet. After graduation, he plans to get his Clinical Lab Scientist certification and get a job like a grown up or go be a pirate.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6202-8100 (totally empty)
Email: [email protected] // [email protected]
Rachel Joyce is an undergraduate Bioengineering student looking to expand her fermentation microbiology knowledge and its application in the wine industry. Her current project utilizes genetic cloning to address smoke taint in wine using engineered strains of yeast. Before transferring to Oregon State University, she attended SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY where she studied Bioprocess engineering and worked in the Biotechnology and Biochemistry lab. Her work in New York included the application of hydrolysis and fermentation methodology to convert brewer’s spent grain into PHA for drug delivery applications. Outside of the lab, she has spent her summers guiding overnight whitewater rafting trips and enjoys running, skiing, climbing, and backpacking.
Jacob Martin is an Honors Student here at OSU majoring in psychology with a minor in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. He is currently studying the effects of nitrate on Brettanomyces growth and how it might affect wine production and spoilage. When not studying or on the court/field officiating basketball or football he is often hiking, playing video games, or brewing beer or cider with friends.
Jules Winding is a 4th year undergraduate student originally from Boulder, Colorado. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health with an option in Health Promotion and Health Behavior, as well as a Medical Humanities Certificate. Under the mentorship of Dr.Curtin, Jules is completing her Honors College thesis requirement. Her thesis is focused on pellicle formation in kombucha with Zygosaccharomyces Bisporus, Brettanomyces Bruxellensis, and Komagataeibacter Intermedius in relation to sucrose concentration, tea type, acetic acid concentration, and surface area for oxygenation. Upon completing her thesis and graduating, she plans on attending dental hygiene school and staying in Oregon. In her free time she enjoys knitting, crocheting, thrifting, and hiking.
Postdocs
Bjarne Bartlett is a postdoctoral scholar working on technological solutions for smoke-tainted wine using yeast genomics. Smoke taint is a pressing concern in Oregon viticulture and, as a member of the Curtin Lab, he hopes to both deepen our understanding of the process of smoke taint as well as develop strategies and solutions for the preservation of wine quality amidst wildfires in Oregon. Bjarne also provides bioinformatics support for a variety of projects, allowing the lab's research to leverage a variety of genomic tools. Bjarne's professional journey has traversed several fields of research, beginning at Johns Hopkins University where he researched cancer genomics, and moving to the University of Hawai’i where he received his PhD in Molecular Biosciences and Bioengineering, before arriving at Oregon State University. His research has been characterized by integrating experimental and computational approaches to questions in the life sciences. He is dedicated to advancing scientific knowledge and addressing real-world challenges in agriculture, medicine, and beyond.