yEvo uses a franchise model so you can take ownership of your experiments.
The yEvo community relies on both classrooms and university research labs. Local research labs act as hubs to work with classrooms, and partner closely on experiment design tied to their combined interests.
Program leaders
Is your laboratory interested in working with yEvo? Please contact us to get involved!
Maitreya Dunham at the University of Washington studies how environmental stressors and genetic alterations contribute to yeast evolution.
Paul Rowley at the University of Idaho studies how viruses shape yeast evolution.
Our classrooms
yEvo modules have been used in several high school and undergraduate classrooms in the US, UK, and China.
If you're interested in bringing yEvo to your school or university, you can access our online resources or contact us.
Our research & development laboratories
Brenda Andrews at the University of Toronto studies genetics and genomics
Renee Geck at Gonzaga University studies how mutations affect enzyme function. She started working with yEvo as a postdoc in the Dunham Lab.
Xueying Li at Beijing Normal University studies transport modeling
Adrianna Matos-Nieves manages internal K-12 programming at the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. She is piloting a bioinformatics expansion project for the existing yEvo resistance and tolerance protocols.
Melissa Mefford at Morehead State University is a geneticist who studies chromatin structure, and is also associated with the residential high school program of the Craft Academy.
Chantle Swichkow studies the mutualism between yeast and bacteria in fermentation in the Kruglyak lab at UCLA.
Bryce Taylor at Loras College studies yeast evolution and domestication. He collaborated with the first yEvo classrooms as a postdoc in the Dunham Lab.
Bethany Teale taught secondary school and now studies Metschnikowia pulcherrima evolution in the Henk lab at the University of Bath.
Sheila Teves at the University of British Columbia studies transcriptional memory
Alexa Warwick at Michigan State University studies ecology and education.
Our classroom research laboratories
Alex Broussard teaches biology at Durham Technical Community College in Durham, NC. He has explored the yEvo system for both directed evolution projects and chemical methods of pigment isolation.
Thomas Juenger is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin
Kelsey Kovarik teaches Biology, Chemistry, and Molecular & Cell Biology at The Downtown School in Seattle, WA. She is piloting yEvo yeast genetics experiments.
Mike Law is an Associate Professor of Biology at Stockton University
David Maxwell at The Pingry School in Basking Ridge, NJ
Moscow High School teachers Ken Berger, Lee Anne Eareckson, and Jonathan Schaper in Moscow, ID
Tim Renz teaches Intro to Biotechnology, Advanced Biomedical Sciences, and Human Anatomy at Tukwila High School, WA. He studies yeast evolution in industrial settings.
Dan Shay is a teacher and Science department head at North Central High School, and PhD student in science and math education at Washington State University.
Ryan Skophammer teaches biology at Westridge School for Girls in Pasadena, CA. He began yEvo for his AP biology students to carry out a long-term research project.
Eric Strate teaches AP Biology and Biomedical Research at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, WA.
Previous yEvo researchers include:
Rebecca Brewer teaches AP Biology and General Biology at Troy High School in Troy, MI and is an author. She participated in yEvo studying caffeine tolerance in 2022-2023.
Kate Johnson at Roosevelt High School in Seattle, WA, participated in yEvo studying micafungin resistance in 2023-2024.