Group Members

Layla joined the Avalon Lab after earning dual B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Marine Biology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As an undergraduate researcher, she worked on coral restoration at the Hawaiʻi Coral Restoration Nursery and later investigated the formation of toxic disinfection byproducts in drinking water systems through the Hawaiʻi Water Resources Research Center. She also spent a summer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography under the mentorship of Dr. William Gerwick and Dr. Byeol Ryu, where she helped isolate and structurally elucidate a novel bioactive cyclopeptide from a filamentous cyanobacteria. In the Avalon Lab, her research interests lie at the intersection of marine invertebrate host-microbial interactions and natural product drug discovery.

Désirée joined the Avalon Lab after earning her PhD in the von Reuss Lab at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. During her PhD she worked on the isolation, characterization, and total synthesis of secondary metabolites from nematodes and explored nematode ecology, thereby focusing on the interface of chemical signaling, secondary metabolism, natural product chemistry, and total synthesis. Prior to that, she earned a BSc in Chemistry and a MSc in Life Sciences in Chemistry from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Wädenswil, Switzerland. Her Master thesis focused on the synthesis of pseudouridimycine analogues as potential antibacterial agents in the Riedl Lab.

Riley joined the Avalon Lab after earning his B.S. in Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry. As an undergraduate researcher in Professor Jay Keasling’s lab, he worked at the intersection of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, developing microbial platforms in both bacterial and yeast hosts for the production of complex natural products. His prior research includes microbial pathway engineering to produce steroidal alkaloid precursors toward the biosynthesis of the anticancer natural product cyclopamine, as well as bacterial production of high-energy polycyclopropanated fatty acids for sustainable biofuel applications. In the Avalon Lab, Riley aims to accelerate the discovery of novel marine natural products with promising therapeutic bioactivities through genome-mining approaches.

Jeremiah joins the Avalon Lab after spending five years as a scientist at Neurocrine Biosciences and PassPort Technologies. During his time in industry, he contributed to the development of several early- and late-stage clinical drug candidates targeting CNS and neurological indications and is the co-inventor on two patents. Prior to that, he earned a B.S. in Biology-Chemistry from Point Loma Nazarene University, where he conducted research under the mentorship of Prof. Katherine Maloney. His work focused on the isolation and structure elucidation of natural products from an endophytic fungi. Jeremiah's research interests lie at the intersection of marine natural product isolation/structure elucidation and neurotherapeutic drug discovery.