*Please note, this is not an exhaustive list as not all lab members chose to have their bio listed online.
Alexandra Ruff, Bella Murphy, Aaron Williams, Ashleys Reynolds, and Sue 
About half the lab and one of our collaborators was able to join us for an end-of year lunch. 
Lola and Tolu at the hooding ceremony. 
Some of the Ishaq Lab gathered for a lunch to celebrate recent achievements 
Presenting at ISME in Cape Town in 2024 
The Ishaq Lab at Boda Borg in Boston, summer 2023. We are showing how many quests we completed. 
Alexis Kirkendall, Jaymie Sidaway, Aakriti Sharma, Sue Ishaq, Johanna Holman, and Lilian Nowak. 
Aaron Williams, Ayodeji Olaniyi, Sydney Shair, and Keagan Rice culturing. 
Sue and Alexis 
Tolu Alaba performing metabolomics. 
Heather Richard performing field research. 
Presenting at the 2022 UMaine Student Research Symposium 
Team Broccoli
Alexis Kirkendall
Doctor of Philosophy candidate, Microbiology
Alexis is from Ohio and initially joined the lab in 2022 when she was majoring in Biology at Heidelberg University, through the Summer 2022 REU, during which she divided her time researching Cryptosporidium in cows, helping in the MSE Symposium, and aiding in the Camel Rumen Microbiome Project. Alexis continued her work remotely, and returned to Maine in summer 2023 as a research assistant for several projects related to gut microbes, diet, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Her research interests are in genetics and she has a love for the fascinating world of microbes.
She returned in January 2024 as a graduate student in the Microbiology program, and passed her comprehensive exam in Aug 2025!
Alexis received a Student Research Award from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation in 2024, and a student research award from the Bioscience Association of Maine for 2025.
Ashley Reynolds, M.S., R.D.
Doctor of Philosophy candidate, Human Nutrition and Food Sciences. Ashley is being co-advisor by Dr. Yanyan Li.
Ashley began her academic journey at the University of Maine completing her undergraduate degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition in 2021 as a Maine Top Scholar. Ashley then pursued a Master’s degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition at the University of Maine. Ashley’s master’s degree research focused on exploring intuitive eating in college students. This research aimed to understand and promote a healthy relationship with food among this demographic. She also took on the role of a teaching assistant for several nutrition classes while completing that degree. In 2023, Ashley successfully completed a dietetic internship and shortly after passed her RD exam to become a registered dietitian. Currently, Ashley is back at the University of Maine, pursuing her Ph.D. in Food Science and Human Nutrition, and passed her comprehensive exam in Jan 2026. She is incredibly interested in nutrition therapy and is beginning her research looking into the microbiome and metabolomic pathways in the context of IBD. The current research uses both human and mouse data to determine the effects broccoli sprouts has in individuals with IBD.
Reynolds A, Glenn E, Lavoie B, Ishaq SL and Li Y (2026). Plant-derived bioactives, the gut–brain axis, and neurodegenerative diseases: mechanistic roles of diet–microbiota interactions. Front. Neurosci. 20:1815972.
Team Environment
Heather Richard, B.A., M.S.
Doctor of Philosophy candidate, Ecology and Environmental Sciences. Heather is being co-advised by Dr. Peter Avis
Heather joined the University of Maine in 2021 as a PhD student with the Maine eDNA program and studies the impacts of bridges and roads on microbial communities in salt marsh habitats. Her background in Ecology led her to pursue a career in informal environmental education for several years before getting a Master’s degree in Marine Biology from San Francisco State University studying biofilms on microplastics pollution. Upon returning to Maine in 2016 she led local research for a coastal non-profit organization and has since been dedicated to studying coastal environmental issues relevant to Maine. She has found a true passion in bioinformatic analysis and is eager to learn new tools for data analysis of all kinds.
Lab Affiliates
These reseachers have graduated or moved to the next stage of the career, and are still collaborating with the lab to wrap up their previous research in the Ishaq Lab.
Dr. Tolu Esther Alaba, PhD
PostDoctoral Researcher, Cedars Sinai
Tolu obtained her Doctorate of Philosophy in Biomedical Sciences from UMaine at the end of June 2024, she currently works at Cedars Sinar, but continues to collaborate with the lab. Esther has won several awards for combining mechanistic and functional tools to investigate dietary interventions in managing metabolic diseases. Her teaching experience includes Basic Physiology, Anatomy, and Experimental Physiology courses. She is passionate about Girls’ Education and Empowerment and currently mentors several young women towards successful career development. Her desire to utilize bioinformatics tools for nutritional therapy brought her to Ishaq’s lab. She currently works on human and mouse data to identify the microbiome and metabolomic pathways involved in the ameliorative effects of broccoli sprouts during IBD.
Alaba, Tolu Esther, “The Antioxidants And Anti-Inflammatories Benefit Of Broccoli Sprout Diets And Their Relation To Health.” (2024). University of Maine Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4017. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/4017. Recording of defense.
Dr. Lola Holcomb, B.S., PhD.
PostDoctoral Researcher, University of New England
Lola entered as a rotating first-year student in March 2022 in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering program, and declared the Ishaq Lab her dissertation lab soon after, and starting in fall of 2022 was accepted into the NRT funded for One Health in the Environment program. Troubled with indecisiveness and the desire to research, well, everything, she quickly found that using bioinformatics and big data as a lens to study microbial ecology (and in time, its relation to social equity) allowed her to do the kind of meaningful interdisciplinary research she’s always wanted to do. Lola is currently working on 16s data analysis for other ongoing lab projects, comparing gut microbiomes of mouse models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease with broccoli as a dietary treatment. Lola performed 16S and metagenomic analysis to compare gut microbiomes of mouse models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease with broccoli as a dietary treatment. In addition to research, she instructed a graduate-level Genetics course, tutored several Biology undergraduate students, and served as a GSBSE senator in the Graduate Student Government at UMaine. She obtained her PhD in May 2025.
Lola was awarded a One Health and the Environment NRT Fellowship 2022- 2024 here at UMaine, and a student research award from the Bioscience Association of Maine for 2025.
Holcomb, Lola. “Anti-Inflammatory Interactions between Gut Microbiota and Broccoli Sprouts”. (2025). University of Maine. Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation (forthcoming). Presentation.
Dr. Johanna Holman, B.S., M.S., PhD
Doctor of Philosophy, Microbiology
Johanna joined the lab in fall 2020 to investigate the effects of diet on the gut microbiome, and on host-microbial interactions. For the past several years, she has been working with Drs. Tao Zhang and Yanyan Li, and her project combines nutritional biochemistry of broccoli sprouts with effects on gut microbes. She obtained her master’s in nutrition in summer 2022, and returned to the Ishaq and Li labs for her PhD! She defended in January 2026.
Imaginome Designs, her graphic design business
- 2026 UMaine Outstanding Graduate Student
- 2024 UMaine Outstanding Graduate Student
- 2022 Norris Charles Clements Graduate Student Award
- 2020-2021 University of Maine Graduate Student Employee of the Year
- Holman, Johanna M., “Prevention of Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Broccoli-sourced and Microbially-produced Bioactives” (2022). University of Maine. Master’s of Science Thesis. 3654.
Marissa Kinney, M.S.
Master of Science, Microbiology, 2024
Marissa recently completed her Masters, as she loves learning and bench microbiology. She completed her undergraduate at the University of Maine in 2021, earning a BS in Microbiology and a BS in Cellular/Molecular Biology. She devoted a large portion of her time in undergrad to research in the laboratories of Dr. Julie Gosse and Dr. Edward Bernard. After graduating, she worked in the field of public health at UMaine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, collecting and processing data about violent and drug-related deaths in Maine. While her role at the Center was one she loved dearly, she feels a big pull towards laboratory work and academic research. She joined the Ishaq lab in early 2023 and is excited by the new opportunities this position brings.
Google Scholar Page.
Marissa was awarded a One Health and the Environment NRT Fellowship 2023 – 2024 at UMaine, and a Student Research Award from the Biomedical Association of Maine in 2023.
Mia Poirier, Undergraduate Researcher, Biology Major with a Minor in Chemistry (pre-medical)
University of Maine Women’s Swimming and Diving
Class of 2026
2025/2026 Undergraduate Research Award from the UMaine Center for Undergraduate Research and the UMaine Institute of Medicine.
The Ishaq Lab 