Mike Eickbush

My Story

Michael Eickbush grew up in Penfield, New York, a town just outside of Rochester.  Having always enjoyed science, he studied Chemistry at the University at Buffalo.  As an undergraduate, he worked during the summers as a programmer in the Eickbush Lab at the University of Rochester, aiding graduate students in acquiring and analyzing large data sets from online sequencing databases. He was so successful that he eventually became a permanent fixture in the lab.  Over time, his focus shifted from data mining to taking over a project involving simulating how transposable elements can maintain themselves in the genome over long periods of time.

Seeking to expand his scientific experience, Michael took the opportunity to head to Seattle for a change of scenery and to join the Malik Lab at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.  While there, he worked with several post-docs on various projects studying genetic conflict in a variety of model organisms including viruses, yeast, and mice.  This was where he first met SaraH and worked with her for a number of years on meiotic drive in fission yeast.  He found the project so fascinating, and the fact that Stowers has a core facility for media prep that would free him from pouring thousands of plates, that when Sarah offered him a position in her new lab in Kansas City,  he decided to accept.

In the summer, when not in the lab, Michael can usually be found outdoors hiking trails or walking the neighborhood.  When the weather grows colder, he takes to the ice with his broom for the sport of curling and was quite pleased to find that Kansas City has a club.  To the enjoyment of the rest of the lab, Michael is also an avid baker, possessing no small amount of skill.  This can prove problematic with other lab members pestering him to bring in more goodies.