People in the Swei Lab:

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Andrea Swei, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

San Francisco State University
Department of Biology
664 Hensill Hall
San Francisco, CA 94132 

(415) 338-1753
aswei- at- sfsu.edu

Spring 2021 office hours are Mondays 10am-12pm on Zoom or by email appointment
https://sfsu.zoom.us/j/2689474197?pwd=aitIeGVXY2NxZi9YTFM1U3NnQUNidz09

Current Master's students 

Grace Shaw
​Grace earned her bachelor’s in biology from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR before going on to work for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy where she managed the Mission blue butterfly translocation project at Milagra Ridge. Grace is interested in the environmental origins of zoonotic vector-borne pathogens and the link between anthropogenic pressures and newly emerging diseases. At San Francisco State University, Grace will be looking at the relationship between habitat connectivity and pathogen distribution and is eager to analyze spatial data using GIS.
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Jacoby Clark 
Jacoby earned his B.S. in Human Biology from North Carolina State University, where his love for biology grew when he started taking classes and doing research on microbes. After completing a summer research experience at UC Berkeley, he wanted to continue learning about the microbial world by studying infectious diseases and their impact on humans. At San Francisco State University, Jacoby funded as an NIH RISE Fellow and is working to develop a pan-pathogen assay to detect tick-borne pathogens ticks from southern California.
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Vincent Mai 
Vincent earned his B.S. in Environmental Sciences at Seattle University, where he was introduced to ecology through working on developing genomic studies for an array of urban meso-carnivores in Dr. Mark Jordan’s lab. He is interested in studying the intersections between ecology and emerging infectious diseases, especially as it relates to climate change and biological invasion. Currently at San Francisco State University, Vincent is conducting molecular and serological research to determine the vertebrate reservoir host(s) of an emerging tick-borne disease Rickettsia phillipii (364D), the etiological agent of Pacific Coast tick fever. 
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​Marie Lilly
​Marie earned her bachelor of arts in biology from Oberlin college, where she developed a passion for disease ecology and taking a multilateral approach to problem solving. After completing a Fulbright grant in Colombia South America, she became interested in integrating her research approach to the ecology of zoonotic pathogens with the social and environmental conditions that lead to transmission and spillover in humans. For her master’s thesis, Marie is investigating the role of community ecology on the West Coast in driving genetic variation and infectivity of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease etiological agent. Marie is excited to learn about the critters of California and contribute to understanding of the most common vector-borne illness in North America!


Undergraduate students

Monika Koczela-Stillman
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Nghia Tran
Thalia Fangon, Genentech scholar
Sydni Mullen
Danielle Peterson

Former Master's students

  • Kacie Ring (Fall 2020) Thesis: "Vector transcriptomics and pathogen transmission"
  • Arielle Crews (Spring 2020) Thesis: "Drivers of genotypic variation in the Lyme disease pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi"
  • Jordan Solomon, NIH RISE fellow (Spring 2020) Thesis: "Parasite aggregation interactions within small mammal hosts"
  • ​Samantha Sambado (Spring 2019) Thesis: "Elucidating the enzootic cycle of an emerging tick-borne disease, Borrelia miyamotoi, in Northern California"
  • ​Lisa Couper (Spring 2018) ​Thesis: "Determinants of vector competence for Lyme disease"
  • ​Kerry O'Connor (Fall 2018) Thesis: "Epidemiology of tick-borne parasites" ​​
  • ​Jessica Kwan (Spring 2016) Thesis: "Ecological determinants of  Ixodes pacificus microbiome"
  • Betsabel Chicana (Spring 2017) Thesis: "Transcriptomics of Borrelia burgdorferi and characterization of species -specific microbiome"​

Lab principles