Damian M Menning, Ph.D.

Damian has a multi-disciplinary background combining molecular ecology, stable isotopes, geochemistry, and hydrology. As a Research Geneticist in the Molecular Ecology Laboratory at the Alaska Science Center he has worked on numerous diverse projects to include microsatellites, conversion of microsatellites to Next Generation Sequencing, transcriptomes, and mitogenomes. His primary area of expertise is the utilization of environmental DNA (eDNA) and its associated techniques to answer a diverse array of scientific questions such as identifying pathogens, invasive species, diet, community structure, and microbiomes of multiple species. Within this skill set he excels at the design, development, and validation of multispecies metabarcoding markers which he produces using custom Python and Biopython scripts. He is always open to collaboration during all steps of a scientific study from initial idea to sampling strategy to data analysis and everything in between.