Welcome to the Zasada Lab!
Our nematology program conducts research spanning from management to genomics and work collaboratively to reach our research goals. We work with many cropping systems including small fruits, raspberry and blueberry, and specialty crops including wine grapes, hops, grasses, and potato. The overall goal of our research is to identify management strategies that are effective, economically viable, and environmentally friendly. Explore our website to discover more about our current projects, the members of our lab, and find out what we’re all about!
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Nematodes in the News:
USDA funds PAPAs research project: 'Potatoes and Pests - Actionable Science Against Nematodes' Pathogenicity of the root lesion nematode Pratylenchus neglectus depends on pre-culture conditions |
Lab Updates
2025 January 2025: After successfully defending his dissertation, PhD candidate Lester officially became Dr. Nuñez-Rodriguez!!! You can check out his presentation here and the final version of his dissertation here! 2024 December 2024: Phd candidate Savannah Phipps and M.S. student Gabby Studebaker gave presentations at the Lynden Ag Show on raspberries and potatoes, respectively. You can get more information about the Ag Show here! September 2024: PhD candidate Savannah Phipps had her twilight tour of her research field up in Mt. Vernon, WA. You can check out the flyer she created for the event here! August 2024: Many of our lab members had the opportunity to attend the 63rd Annual Society of Nematologists conference in Park City, Utah from August 4th to 9th. There were so many amazing talks given discussing different aspects of nematology with three of our own, Inga, Tatiana, and Lester, giving presentations on their own research. One of our main collaborators, Dr. Cynthia Gleason from Washington State University, gave a presentation on the nematode taxonomic database we've been working on for the past couple of years, NemaTaxa. Posters were presented by other members of the lab including Amy, Savannah, Hannah , and Gabby (who wasn't able to attend but we got lots of compliments on her work!!!). A former lab member Catie presented a poster as well describing her work with Inga! Besides learning about our favorite creatures, we found some time for hiking, river rafting, and lots of tasty food to round out our trip to such a beautiful town! Oh...we made some new friends too!! July 2024: The Washington State University Machine Harvesting Red Raspberry Field Day was held on Wednesday July 10th, 2024 in Lynden, WA. The day involved our PhD student Savannah Phipps presenting her flyer on the troubles caused by the root lesion nematode, Pratylenchus penetrans, in red raspberry. The schedule for the field day can be found here! June 2024: The Oregon State University Potato Field Day was held on Wednesday June 26th, 2024 in Hermiston, OR. The day involved our M.S. student Gabby Studebaker presenting her flyer on root-knot nematodes to help educate local potato growers on the risks their crops face! Graduation season hit us hard this year! Graduate student Shijie (Eric) Zhang graduated with a non-thesis M.S. in Soil Science, McKenna Platt graduated with a B.S. in Botany with a focus in plant pathology, and Brandon Fahlenkamp graduated with an Honor's B.S. in Biology. McKenna is taking some time off from school to continue helping us out in the lab while Brandon is out exploring on the Pacific Crest Trail! March 2024: Oregon State University had the honour of hosting the American Phytopathological Society's annual meeting from March 26th to 28th. We had several lab members present posters and you can view them here: McKenna, Lester, Gabby, Savannah, Shijie, Hannah, and Tatiana! February 2024: Savannah Phipps presented a poster about her RLN research at the 2024 NARBA Conference in Wilmington, North Carolina! You can check out her poster here. 2023 October 2023: We celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the USDA Horticultural Crops Research Unit with a large celebration and tours of the different labs at our unit! Our lab made a summary poster of the different research we're working on which you can view here. July 2023: The 62nd Annual Society of Nematologists meeting was held in Columbus, Ohio from July 9th - 14th. The theme of this years conference was "Returning to the Land-Grant". May 2023: Gabby Studebaker began her new role in the lab as a technician until she starts her M.S. in Plant Pathology in January 2024 working on characterizing root-knot nematode impacts on size and quality of potato and new molecular diagnostic tools for M. hapla. 2022 December 2022: Lab members Hannah Baker and Tatiana Benedetii were able to attend the Clemson Nematology Identification course in Clemson, SC from December 9th to 16th, 2022. September 2022: The 61st Annual Society of Nematologists meeting was held in Anchorage, Alaska from September 26th - 29th. Tatiana Benedetti started in the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with projects focused on alternative nematode control methods that can reduce reliance on pesticides and soil fumigants. Lester received the Larry Moore Award for Graduate Research which will support Lester’s survey of plant-parasitic nematodes in hop fields in Idaho and Washington this coming Fall. Results from this survey will provide the hop industry with baseline information on the distribution of plant-parasitic nematodes in the Pacific Northwest. August 2022: Savannah Phipps started her PhD in Botany and Plant Pathology with Dr. Zasada working on pest and pathogen resistance/tolerance genetics in raspberry. Cristian Olaya started in the lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with projects focusing on virus diagnostics, epidemiology and transmission in grapevine, small, and stone fruits by nematodes. July 2022: Hannah Baker returned to the lab as a lab technician after receiving her MS degree in Plant Pathology from Washington State University in December 2021. June 2022: Michelle Soule successfully defended her thesis titled “Development of Quantitative PCR Assays to Aid in Root-knot Nematode (Meloidogyne spp.) Diagnostics and Resistance Breeding Efforts in the Pacific Northwest” to earn her MS in Botany and Plant Pathology! May 2022: Brandon Fahlenkamp joined the lab as an Undergraduate Research Assistant 2021 December 2021: McKenna Platt joined the lab as an Undergraduate Research Assistant September 2021: Lester Nunez Rodriguez began his Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Pathology with Dr. Zasada working on increasing the knowledge surrounding nematodes of hop and hemp. May 2021: Catie Wram successfully defended her dissertation titled “Insights into Novel Non-Fumigant Nematicides: Physiological and Cellular Responses of Meloidogyne incognita and Other Plant-Parasitic Nematodes” to earn her PhD in Botany and Plant Pathology! 2020: Cedar Hesse was promoted from Postdoctoral Research Assistant to unit Biologist (Computational/Bioinformatics)! Amy Peetz was promoted from Lab Technician to Lab Scientist! 2019 September 2019: Michelle Soule started her M.S. in Plant Pathology working with Dr. Zasada on the development of a multiplex hydrolysis probe qPCR to detect and quantify Meloidogyne hapla and M. chitwoodi. July 2019: Catie Wram published her first paper where she was the principle author in Phytopathology. You can access it here! Hannah Baker is moving on to Washington State University to work on her M.S. with Dr. Cynthia Gleason on potato soil health. March 11th -14th 2019: A GLOBAL Globodera ellingtonae Genome Workshop was hosted by Dr.’s Inga Zasada and Dee Denver from March 11th – 14th in Corvallis, OR. Over the four-day workshop, collaborators from France, Canada, the UK, Cornell, and the University of Idaho annotated 1400 genes within the G. ellingtonae genome. Targeted genes within the genome included putative effectors as well as hundreds of BUSCO genes. We are so pleased to have accomplished so much during this workshop!! January 2019: Catie Wram successfully passed her preliminary exam and is now an official PhD candidate!! 2018 November 2018: Catie Wram experiences nematode damage to potato up close at AGNEMA in Richland, WA. June 2018: Hannah Baker graduated with an Honor’s Bachelor of Science in BioResource Research with options in Pest Biology and Management and Biotechnology. Amy Peetz and Catie Wram attended the 2018 APS Pacific Division Joint Meeting with the Conference on Soilborne Plant Pathogens in Portland, OR. Catie Wram presented her research on the effects of conventional and alternative nematicides against Meloidogyne incognita. 
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