Sue-Jie Koo

Research Interests:

My project in the lab is to determine the abundance of the polychaete host of Ceratomyxa shasta called Manayunkia speciosa, and its infection prevalence with the parasite in the Klamath River, located in northern California and southern Oregon.

Ceratomyxa shasta is particularly prevalent in the Klamath River compared to other rivers in the Pacific Northwest, where it is causing adverse economical and ecological impacts. The data from this project will contribute to the sparse number of studies and publications on Manayunkia speciosa. Determining a relationship between the density and the prevalence of infection in these freshwater polychaetes could assist in future parasite management actions in the Klamath River.

This project was part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute summer research program at Oregon State University and was presented at the OREOS undergraduate research symposium at the University of Montana in August, 2009.

Education Background:

I am currently a senior in Microbiology, and have been at Oregon State University for 2 years. I previously have worked in a grassland ecology laboratory, determining the fecundity rates of Rhopalosiphum padi, a vector of the Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus, on various Oregon and California grasses. I transferred to OSU from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand in 2007 to further expand my options in research, and to see my place of birth.