Lab Team
Casey Theriot | Professor
Casey is a Professor of Infectious Disease in the Department of Population Health and Pathobiology at NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Her research focuses on understanding the interactions between the gut microbiota, metabolome, host, and pathogen C. difficile. She is also the Chair of the Microbiome Cluster, the Assistant Director for the UNC CGIBD, and the Director of the Gnotobiotic Animal Core at NC State University.
NCSU Microbiome Cluster | UNC CGIBD | NCSU Gnotobiotic Animal Core
cmtherio@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 513-0711
Cypress Perkins | Animal Research Technician
Cypress joined the Theirot Lab in November of 2021. They earned their MS in Animal Science at NC State in 2023. Cypress is the lab manager in addition to managing all the in vivo experiments for the Theriot Lab.
ceperkin@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 515-5233
Abigail Gancz | Postdoctoral Fellow
Abby joined the lab in September 2024 as a postdoctoral fellow. She earned her BSPH in biostatistics at UNC-CH in 2019 and her PhD in anthropology at Penn State in 2024. She is also a UNC Basic Science GI T32 Fellow through NIH. Her research focuses on integrating multi-omic datasets to investigate the relationships between the gut microbiota and novel lipids in patients undergoing fecal microbiota transplantation.
asgancz@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 515-5233
Noah Lyons | Postdoctoral Fellow
Noah joined the Theriot lab in October 2025. He completed his BS in Chemistry from East Tennessee State University in 2020 and his PhD in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech in 2025. Noah’s research focuses on characterizing bile salt hydrolases (BSHs) from commensal gut bacteria and studying their impact on bile acid metabolism and C. difficile colonization resistance.
nslyons@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 515-5233
Samantha Kisthardt | Graduate Student
Samantha joined the Theriot Lab in December 2021. She completed her BS in Microbiology at NC State and is a 2021-2022 Genetics and Genomics Scholar. Samantha studies how nutrient use by commensal Clostridia affects secondary bile acid production and C. difficile colonization.
sckistha@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 515-5233
John Shamoun | Clinical Investigator/Graduate Student
John recently joined the Theriot Lab in August 2024. He completed his BS from UGA in 2015, DVM from Ross University in 2019, and residency in small animal internal medicine at NCSU in 2023. John is a clinician investigator who studies pathogenesis mechanisms of Uropathogenic E. coli in canines under the direction of Drs. Theriot and Jacob.
jashamou@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 515-5233
Sam Hamacher | Graduate Student
Sam joined the Theriot lab in January 2024. He graduated in 2019 with a degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology with minors in Genetics and Microbiology at NC State. Sam uses cloning techniques to create modified commensal strains to create complex bile acid pools and determine their impacts on C. difficile.
swhamach@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 515-5233
Molly Vanhoy Walsh | Graduate Student
Molly joined the Theriot lab in July 2025. She graduated in 2022 with a degree in Microbiology and a minor in Leadership in Agriculture and Life Sciences at NC State. Molly researches metaproteomic applications for identifying host-microbe interactions in gastrointestinal disease.
mevanhoy@ncsu.edu | Phone: +1 (919) 515-5233
Xochilt Espinoza Jaen | Undergraduate Researcher
Xochilt is an undergraduate research fellow working towards a BS in Microbiology. She is currently studying how C. difficile toxins affect host cell gene expression in Caco-2 cells and primary colonocytes.
Damian Nikolov | Undergraduate Researcher
Damian is an undergraduate research fellow working towards a BS Human Biology. He is currently assisting the graduate students where needed and helping with other maintenance around the lab.
Addison Wright | Undergraduate Researcher
Addison is an undergraduate research fellow working towards a BS Biochemistry. She is currently assisting the graduate students where needed and helping with other maintenance around the lab.