The 2025 Bollyky Lab Holiday Party is in the books!! Thanks so much to Maya and Jenna for all their work making it a success and to our quiz masters this year Aaryan and Nora!
Fall, 2025: A hearty welcome to the new undergrads in lab this semester – Tia, Rhys, and Sanjana – and a big shout-out to our amazing lab manager Maya for training everyone!
Happy Halloween from the Bollyky Lab (AKA “Phage Defense”)!
Lab Hike at Pulgas Ridge Preserve!
Look who was in town! Graham and Kate Hatfull, our phage friends from the University of Pittsburgh! Great to see you guys!
ID summer picnic pics!
Congratulations to Arya Khosravi on his newly funded NIH K08 award!! So excited to see all of the great research this amazing physician-scientist is going to do with this award!
We’re so excited to have Michelle Shen rotate with us this summer. Michelle graduated from Stanford with a BSH in Bioengineering and is currently in medical school at Stanford in the MTSP program. She is excited about the development of novel therapeutic strategies and delivery vectors. In the Bollyky lab, she is interested in engineering bacteriophage for the development of new phage-derived vectors and tools. She is working with Saumel. Welcome Michelle!
Let’s welcome our summer students!
The first up is Kara Bhatt. She writes: “Hey! My name is Kara Bhatt (they/any pronouns, please!) and I’m an intern for the Bollyky lab this summer. I attend Reed College in Portland, Oregon as a junior-year biology major. I’ve had the pleasure of working on many fun projects at Reed, but my favorite so far has to have been my final group project for Genetics, in which we attempted to measure the radioresistance of bacteria growing inside Reed’s nuclear reactor. At the Bollyky lab, I’m following in the footsteps of last year’s undergraduate intern, Aaryan Harshith, and attempting to isolate novel bacteriophages from sewage, soil, and natural water sources. I hope to contribute to our bank of therapeutic bacteriophages and expand treatment options for those suffering from antibiotic-resistant infections. In my free time, I enjoy foraging, Dungeons & Dragons, contemporary poetry, and making art.”
Next up is Ehsan Heidari. He write that “I am a visiting research scholar at Stanford University and a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at NJIT and Rutgers. I have a multidisciplinary background, having studied Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Doctor of Pharmacy, which enables me to approach biomedical research from both an engineering and life sciences perspective. My research experience spans biosensors, nanotechnology, and machine learning for applications in drug development. At the Bollyky Lab, I’m working on engineering gold–palladium (AuPd) and gold–platinum (AuPt) nanoparticles conjugated with bacteriophages to develop targeted, immune-modulating therapies for antibiotic-resistant infections. I’m excited to contribute to this cutting-edge work at the intersection of nanomedicine, immunology, and synthetic biology, and I’m truly honored to be part of such a collaborative and innovative team.
Next up is Anna Rodden. She writes: Hello! My name is Anna and I’m super excited to be participating in the Bollyky lab this summer as a research assistant! I’m going into Sophomore year at Stanford in the fall and planning on majoring in general Biology with the goal of pursuing a career in research later on. This is my first experience in a lab and I’m already having so much fun delving into my work with Jessica Sacher testing and developing novel lytic phage cocktails for treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. This work is not only intriguing but hopefully clinically powerful. I’m thrilled to join the team here at the Bollyky lab, where I work amidst scientists pursuing a variety of unique projects that I can learn from and be inspired by. Outside of science, I enjoy playing cello, listening to music, spending time in nature, and hanging out with family and friends.
Lab outing pics from this summer
Congratulations Tony!!! Good luck at UMich Medical School!
Congratulations Grace on graduating from ID Fellowship!! We’re so proud of you and wish you well at Swedish Medical Center!
So fun to see Dr. Arya Khosravi rounding this morning with the ID consult team! Physician-Scientist in action!!
Welcome to the lab Amelia!!!
Welcome to the lab Zach!
Goodbye Prema! We’ll miss you!
lab peeps
Lab Holiday Party 2024
Welcome to Stanford Martin and Joana!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Halloween from the Minions!
Zhiwei and Lea are Stanford Soccer fans
9.2024 Tooba rocked her Bio-X poster presentation!
8.2024 Lab hike!! At the Pearson-Arastradero Preserve
8.2024. Jess was spotted giving a lab tour to some future microbiologists
7.2024. Tony Chang is having a heck of a summer! First graduation and now the golden phage award for being an amazing mentor. Go Tony!!
7.2024. So great to welcome Dr. Katrine Whiteson to Stanford!!
6.2024. Congratulations Dr. Pourtois on a successful PhD thesis defense! We’re so proud of you!
6.2024. Minions!…
Congratulations Dr. Dhamaraj on a successful PhD thesis defense!!
Farewell Arne!! We’re going to miss you.
Alternative sports team names, courtesy of the lab white board…
New kid on the block graduate student Lucy Zhang was spotted catching up on the phage literature…
Lab fondue lunch hosted by Dea, our visiting student from Switzerland!
2023 Holiday lab party!
Happy Halloween from the Bollyky lab!! We went as “The Microbiology Literature” this year. So “Grapes of Staph” by John Steinbeck, “Sense, Sensibility and Syphilis” by Jane Austen… anyway, you get it. Check us out!
Welcome Nana!!! We’re so excited to have you rotating with us in lab this Fall!
Check out this story on our very own amazing Dr. Arya Khosravi and his journey as a physician-scientist, out this month in the Stanford Department of Medicine Annual Report: https://domannualreports.stanford.edu/2023-annual-report/2023-all-stories/
9/2023: Congratulations to Dr. Hunter martinez for a successful PhD thesis defense!! And a big shout out to Nadine and Gernot for hosting an outstanding afterparty.
9/2023: Our outstanding summer student Katie Woo and her her awesome mentor Maryam Hajfathlian presented their poster on phage delivery of nanoparticles at Bio-X
8/2023: Lab hike!! We explored the old growth redwoods in Sam McDonald State Park and then continued for lunch on the beach at Pescadero State park.
6/2023: So excited to announce that Dr. Liz Burgener is starting her own lab at USC/Keck School of Medicine/Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles! We’re all so proud of everything Liz accomplished here at Stanford and so excited to see what she will build at CHLA. Her lab will be studying phages and chronic respiratory infections in Cystic Fibrosis. Go Dr. Liz!!
6/2023: It was Infectious Disease fellowship graduation on The Farm. Congratulations to our graduate Dr. Arya Khosravi and our new Remington Award Winner Dr. Grace Cullen!
6/23: Bon Voyage Party
5/23:Lab breakfast at the Stanford Cactus Garden
5/23: New lab photo!
3/23: Arne Echterhof wins a Merrigan Scholarship! This grant supports his studies on phages in the human body and his research at Stanford in 2022-2023
3/23: lab breakfast
1/23: Tejas presented his work on bacteriophage delivery at the Immunology Retreat at Asilomar.
12/22: Tony Chang shared his research on Pf phage and bacterial biofilms at ASM Micro in Atlanta as he continues to kill it in lab. Go Tony!
Happy Holidays! It was so great to have everyone together again for the annual holiday party and wonderful to have so many lab alumni in the house!
Tejas Dharmaraj was honored asa SIGF Fellow. Congratulations!
Bollyky lab Retreat at Bodega Bay!
The Bollyky lab hosted M&I Happy Hour
Maya and Tony crushed the poster session at Bio-X
Goodbye Sally, we’ll miss you! Good luck at Gilead!
Lab outing to Ano Nuevo State Park; March 2022
Holiday outing, 2021
Lab Photo 2021
Celebrating the work that our rotation grad student, Miles, has done with us! It’s been great having you in the lab Miles! We know you will do great things!
Celebrating completion of a clinical trial with the Halo team!
The Bollyky Lab goes to Santa Cruz!
This year’s lab photo! Unfortunately, not in person… But we figured out how to make it work!
Crazy smokey here at Stanford due to the wildfires. Our masks are doing double duty as ash/COVID barriers.
A goodbye hike with Dan Liu, our visiting scientist from China who spent the year from 9.2019-8.2020 with us.
A day in the lab back before sheltering in place. Can’t wait to get past this and back to doing experiments! One day, hopefully soon…
Zoom! Contemplating Mike’s data during a recent, virtual lab meeting. #shelterinplace
Bollyky Lab T-shirts (and Rebeca Plank) have a pretty sweet life
12.2019 Tenure!
11.2019 Thanksgiving Lab Potluck 
11.2019 – Celebrating a new grant
10.2019 – Pumpkin Carving
9.2019 – Celebrating with Nadine and Gernot
9.2019 – Annual Lab BBQ at Nadine and Gernot’s house
8.2019 – Bollyky Lab members at the Evergreen Phage Conference 2019
6.2019 – Outstanding lecture on bacteriophage and mucosal immunity from our guest speaker Dr. Jeremy Barr from Monash University
6.2019 – Catching up with Drs. Yonatan Grad, Rebeca Plank, and Alice Long in Boston at FOCIS 2019
ISHAS 2019 – Cardiff Wales
4.2019 – Dr. Gina Suh and Dr. Jolien Sweere come back to visit!
The next generation of Bollyky family scientists
Lab Hike – Uvas Canyon County Park -4/2019
Michelle Bach and friends at the Stanford Sterling Scholar Award Ceremony, 4/2019
Rebeca Plank rocking her Bollyky Lab T-shirt all over Europe!
Phage Group Meeting with Pat Secor and Valery Roman-Cruz – 3/2019
Bollyky Lab Holiday Party 2018
Phage at the Dia De Los Muertos celebration, Redwood City 11.2018
Phage in the House!!! Gina’s Halloween Party – 2018
Clara showing off her Bollyky Lab swag
Tailgating at the Stanford Football Game – 10.2018
September 2018 – Paul and Christiaan go to Montana to visit Pat Secor
Graduation 2018 – Congratulations Jolien and Danny!
Hedwich’s Going Away Party, 2018
Lab Holiday Party, 2017
The Eclipse!! 2017
Picnic at Nadine and Gernot’s place, 2017
Bollyky Lab – Christmas 2016
Bollyky Lab – Fall 2016
Tahoe, Summer 2015
Bollyky Lab – Summer 2015
Bollyky Lab – Fall 2014
The Lab
The Bollyky Lab 