Affiliation: University of California, Merced

Dr. Ceballos is the Project Director of the NSF-funded Host-Virus Evolutionary Dynamics Institute (HVEDI), a multi-institutional collaborative studying virus-host interactions in virus systems that span domains of life (i.e., Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya). The Ceballos Lab is a general microbiology and biochemistry research laboratory in the Molecular and Cell Biology Department at the University of California Merced. His research focuses on virology, virus ecology, and developing biotechnology from extremophile microorganisms. He has studied hyperthermophilic archaea and their viruses for over a decade. He is also the named inventor on a patent for using engineered thermophilic platforms for protecting enzymes in industrial and agricultural applications. More recently, the Ceballos Lab has focused on understanding mechanisms by which double-stranded DNA virus infections (i.e., roseoloviruses) can lead to neurological dysfunction. Dr. Ceballos received his bachelor’s degree in Physics and Math from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, his master’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and his doctorate in Integrative Microbiology and Biochemistry from the University of Montana. He was an Alfred P. Sloan Indigenous Graduate Program awardee and a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow. He is also a graduate of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s SEA-PHAGES faculty training program.