Curriculum Vitae

Last updated 4 Aug. 2023
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Education

Doctor of Philosophy — Cornell University, 2022

Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Field of Genetics, Genomics & Development
Thesis: Metagenomic Methods to Investigate Mobile Element Context and Nascent Transcription in the Human Gut Microbiome

Bachelor of Science — Gettysburg College, 2016

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major, magna cum laude
Lincoln Scholar – highest merit-based scholarship awarded

Research Experience

Postdoctoral Associate — Lab of Dr. Paul Turner, Yale University

Studying the evolutionary dynamics of phages of human pathogens as part of the ongoing efforts at the Center for Phage Biology and Therapy at Yale — March 2023 – Present

PhD Candidate — Lab of Dr. Ilana Brito, Cornell University

Designing and implementing methods to quantify changes in the composition and function of the human gut microbiome during perturbation and disease — May 2017 – May 2022

HHMI Summer Research Fellow — Gettysburg College

Characterizing soil bacteriophages by host range screens and comparative genomics — Summers 2014 & 2015

Publications

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Vill AC, Rice EJ, De Vlaminck I, Danko CG, Brito IL. Run-on sequencing reveals transcriptional dynamics within the human microbiome. Preprint

Chivu AG, Abuhashem A, Barshad G, Rice EJ, Leger MM, Vill AC, Wong W, Brady R, Smith JJ, Wikramanayake AH, Arenas-Mena C, Brito IL, Ruiz-Trillo I, Hadjantonakis AK, Lis JT, Lewis JJ, Danko CG. Evolution of promoter-proximal pausing enabled a new layer of transcription control. Preprint

Grodner B, Shi H, Farchione O, Vill AC, Ntekas I, Diebold PJ, Zipfel WR, Brito IL, De Vlaminck I. Spatial Mapping of Mobile Genetic Elements and their Cognate Hosts in Complex Microbiomes. Preprint

Vill AC, Delesalle VA, Tomko BE, Lichty KB, Simões MS, Guffey AA, Burton EA, Tanke NT, Krukonis GP. Comparative genomics of six lytic Bacillus subtilis phages from the Southwest United States. PHAGE. 2022 3(3):171-178.

Delesalle VA, Tomko BE, Vill AC, Boas K, Krukonis GP. Forty Years without Family: Three Novel Bacteriophages with High Similarity to SPP1 Reveal Decades of Evolutionary Stasis since the Isolation of Their Famous Relative. Viruses. 2022 14(10):2106

Kent AG, Vill AC , Shi Q, Satlin MJ, Brito IL. Widespread transfer of mobile antibiotic resistance genes within individual gut microbiomes revealed through bacterial Hi-C. Nature Communications. 2020 11(1):4379.

Delesalle VA, Tanke NT, Vill AC, Krukonis GP. Testing hypotheses for the presence of tRNA genes in mycobacteriophage genomes. Bacteriophage. 2016 6(3):e1219441.

Pope WH, Bowman CA, Russell DA, Jacobs-Sera D, Asai DJ, Cresawn SG, Jacobs WR, Hendrix RW, Lawrence JG, Hatfull GF; Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science ; Phage Hunters Integrating Research and Education; Mycobacterial Genetics Course. Whole genome comparison of a large collection of mycobacteriophages reveals a continuum of phage genetic diversity. eLife. 2015 4:e06416.

co-first author
consortium member, data contributor

Honors and Awards

Travel Award Recipient, Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics2022

Seed Grant Recipient, Genomics Innovation Hub2020

Distinguished Scholar, Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics2019

Honorable Mention, NSF Graduate Research Fellowship — 2018

Herzog Teaching Fellow, Gettysburg College — 2015

HHMI Summer Research Fellow, Gettysburg College — 2014 & 2015

Service and Outreach

Coordinator, Cornell Center for Vertebrate Genomics Journal ClubFall 2021 - Spring 2022

Graduate Mentor, Microbial Friends & Foes Research Experience for non-Cornell UndergraduatesSummer 2019

Workshop Facilitator, 4-H Career Explorations “Engineering the Microbiome” Focus Program — June 26-28, 2018

Graduate Fellow, Cornell Graduate Student School Outreach ProgramSpring 2018