Biology

Education

1997 B.S. Biology, Virginia Tech  2006 Ph.D. Microbiology, Indiana University 2006    - 2012 Post-Doctoral Fellow, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University

Research

Dr. Alvey’s research interests lie in the study of viruses of phototrophic prokaryotes, in particular, the freshwater Cyanobacteria and the Rhodobacteraceae. Recent work has focused on understanding the diversity of the bacteriophages that infect members of these two groups using genomic analyses of wild-caught isolates obtained by Illinois Wesleyan students. Now with our collection of more than 30 isolated and sequenced bacteriophages we are starting to explore how these viruses evolve and adapt to new hosts. Students working on projects in the Alvey lab utilize a variety of traditional microbiology and molecular biology skills as well as bioinformatics to explore these interactions.

Teaching

Dr. Alvey teaches

• General Biology (BIOL 101)
• Microbial World (BIOL 110)
• Introduction to Genetics (BIOL 212)
• Microbiology (BIOL 314)
• Immunology (BIOL 375)