Departmental Roles:

Undergraduate — Lecturer & Academic Coordinator for MIMG Instructional Laboratories

Graduate — Co-Faculty Advisor for MIMG Teaching Assistants, Departmental TA Training Course (MIMG 495 – Preparation for Teaching Microbiology in Higher Education) & Programs

Current Courses Taught:

MIMG 101L — Microbiology Laboratory

MIMG 102L — Virology Laboratory

MIMG 121A — Microbial Molecular Biology Laboratory

Previous Courses Taught:

MIMG 101 — Introductory Microbiology (Fall 2005 & 2006)

MIMG C159 — Advanced Molecular Genetics (Winter 2007)

Research Interests:

Undergraduate microbiology education
Metagenomic analysis of microbial communities including bacteriophage & soil bacteria
Microbial energy production
Site-specific DNA recombination
Molecular systematics of green algae & plants

Education-related Publications:

Sanders-Lorenz ER (2007). The Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden as a Classroom for Teaching Microbial Ecology and Evolution at UCLA. Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden Newsletter 10:7-8, 11.

Research Publications:

Hausner G, Olson R, Simon D, Johnson I, Sanders ER, Karol KG, McCourt RM, and Zimmerly S (2006). Origin and Evolution of the Chloroplast trnK (matK) Intron: A Model for Evolution of Group II Intron RNA Structures. Molecular Biology and Evolution 23:380-391.

Dhar G, Sanders ER, and Johnson RC (2004). Architecture of the Hin synaptic complex during recombination: the recombinase subunits translocate with the DNA strands. Cell 119:33-45.

Sanders ER and Johnson RC (2004). Stepwise dissection of the Hin-catalyzed recombination reaction from synapsis to resolution. Journal of Molecular Biology 340:753-766.

Sanders ER, Karol KG, and McCourt RM (2003). Occurrence of matK in a trnK group II intron in Charophyte green algae and phylogeny of the Characeae. American Journal of Botany 90:628-633.

Merickel SK, Sanders ER, Vázquez-Ibar JL, and Johnson RC (2002). Subunit exchange and the role of dimer flexibility in DNA binding by the Fis protein. Biochemistry 41:5788-5798.