Team
Benjamin J. Callahan | Associate Professor
Ben is an Associate Professor of Microbiomes and Complex Microbial Communities in the Population Health and Pathobiology department, and is also affiliated with the Bioinformatics Research Center.
CV | Google Scholar | Twitter
bcallah@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 515-8536
Özge SheRA Kuddar | PhD Student
Özge received a BEng in Bioengineering from Ege University, Turkiye, and an MS in Biotechnology from HS Mannheim, Germany. Before joining the lab, she worked at Duke University, engineering genomes of multiple organisms, including the gut commensal microbe Akkermansia muciniphila. She joined NCSU in 2021 as a Bioinformatics PhD student and working on the DNA metabarcoding project.
Jorden Rabasco | PhD Student
Jorden received a BS in Biology from Brandeis University, before joining the Callahan lab in the fall of 2021 as a PhD student in the Bioinformatics program. His current research interests include contamination reduction in microbiome experiments, intuitive software development, and assessing bias in microbiome experimentation.
Yixuan Yang | PhD Student
Yixuan received a BS in Statistics from North Carolina State University and joined the Callahan lab in fall 2023 to pursue a PhD in Bioinformatics. His current research interests include statistical analysis of microbial and metagenomic data, the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis, and contamination reduction.
Rasaq Awosemo | PhD Student
Rasaq earned his Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Lagos State University, and then graduated in 2024 from the University of New Haven with a master’s degree in Cell and Molecular Biology. He joined the lab in Fall 2025 to pursue a PhD in bioinformatics. His current research interests are microbiome analysis, infectious diseases, and host-microbe interactions.
Laboratory Alumni
(Position After Working In The Lab)
Taylor Gin | PhD Student | Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, NCSU
Craig Gin | Postdoc | Position: Data Scientist, src ftbl
Dmitry Grinevich | Postdoc | Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, UNC
David Huang | PhD Student | Position: Senior Scientist, Biostatistics, Merck
Hanna Berman | PhD Student | Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, NCSU
Michael McLaren | Postdoc | Position: Senior Research Scientist, SecureBio
Naga Betrapally | Postdoc | Position: Bioinformatics Analyst IV, National Cancer Institute