Inessa CHANDRA

Starting her post-doctoral position in 2025, Inessa investigates photoreceptors and their role in biological rhythms in Dictyota dichotoma, focusing primarily on circadian rhythms. She is utilizing bioinformatics (e.g. Hidden Markov Model-based mining of brown algal genomes) and transcriptomics to identify candidate photo-sensitive transcription factors, then various molecular tools to characterize their biophysical and DNA-binding properties.

Previously, she completed her PhD in Biological Sciences within the Marine and Environmental Biology program at the University of Southern California under the advisement of Dr. Andrew Gracey and Dr. Sergey Nuzhdin. She primarily used transcriptomics to investigate circadian rhythms and aging in Macrocystis pyrifera, more commonly known as giant kelp, with forays into enzyme activity assays, chlorophyll extraction and quantification, and elemental CN analysis. She oversaw 4 summer undergraduate internships revolving around topics of circadian-gating, temperature stress, nutrient history/stress, and microbial abundance in giant kelp. During her PhD, she also designed a laboratory curriculum for undergraduate research experience studying around circadian rhythms in giant kelp gametophytes and a Wrigley May-mester course on Coastal Zone Sustainability.