Current Lab Members
The Roston lab is making lipids great again with the best young researchers!
Rebecca is committed to providing the mentoring you need to reach your next career goal. She also believes that your goals are the right goals. She'll help you become a leader in industry, education, academia or beyond.
Samira Mahboub
Technician
Samira joined the lab in 2014 and has clocked hundreds of hours doing lipid analysis. Also an expert in plant growth.
Evan LaBrant
Graduate Student
Evan joined the lab in 2017. He is studying the molecular and structural components involved in thylakoid membrane biogenesis and ultrastructure. He’s interested in all things plastid biology including their evolutionary history, physiological functions, and morphological diversity. For fun, Evan is an amateur botanist, beginner beekeeper, and novice chef.
Zach Shomo
Graduate Student
Zach joined the lab in 2018. He is studying the mechanism by which a critical freezing tolerance enzyme, SFR2, is activated.
Samantha Surber
Undergraduate Researcher
"Sammi" joined the lab in 2018 working directly with Allison Barnes. She's now pursuing her own project on the role of proton pumps during freezing tolerance
Mahaa Nena
Undergraduate researcher
Mahaa joined the lab in 2018. She is testing multiple methods of lipid extraction to determine the most effective.
Maxwell Register
Undergraduate Researcher
Max joined the lab in 2019. He is testing multiple methods of lipid extraction on Sorghum to determine the most effective
Xindi Chen
Undergraduate Researcher
Xindi joined the lab in 2019. She is testing multiple application methods of antioxidants application to plants.
We Escaped!
Februrary 2019: We celebrated being awarded an NSF-CAREER award by going to an escape room. The escape room was bio-terror related, with us ransacking a "lab" to find the cure (NaCl--really?). We escaped with fifteen minutes to spare, but only managed to save Canda from the ravages of the disease...
Go team!
Thank you to all those who have donated their expertise to the Roston lab efforts.
Dr. Allison Barnes
Graduate Student
2014 - 2019. Her dissertation describes how plants react to freezing and other stresses by modifying membranes. She is currently a post-doc with Rubén Rellán-Álvarez at North Carolina State University.
Mason McCormick
Undergraduate Researcher
Mason joined the lab in 2016 and left for a job in chemistry. Graduated UNL 2019.
Jenny Myers
Undergraduate Student
Jenny joined the lab in 2016 and graduated in 2018. She's now off being a graduate student at North Carolina State University.
Former Lab Members
REBECCA ROSTON
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
Rebecca moved to UNL in 2014.
A brief biography:
2003 B.S. UC Davis
2009 Ph.D. UC Davis with Kentaro Inoue
Focused on protein targeting.
2014 Post-Doc. MSU with Christoph Benning
Focused on Plant Lipid Metabolism and trafficking.
2014 - Current: University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Teaching: Macromolecular Structure and Metabolism, a beginning biochemistry course at UNL (BIOC431)
2016 PLANTS’ SURPRISING GUARD AGAINST FREEZING: ACID
Allison and Rebecca make the news based on their recent publication
Summer 2015: The Roston Lab Travels First Class
Back row: Alexi Lauray, Samira Mahboub, David Logan
Middle row: Ali Meyers
Front row: Allison Barnes, Carol Roston, Rebecca Roston