Members — The Cox Lab

Lab Members

Principal Investigator

Kevin Cox Jr., Ph.D. (he/him)

Assistant Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis

Assistant Member at Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Kevin earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2013. He then earned his Ph.D. in Plant Pathology at Texas A&M University in Libo Shan’s lab in 2018. Afterwards, he joined the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center for his post-doctoral experience in Blake Meyers’ lab. Kevin started his role as a joint faculty member as an Assistant Professor of Biology at WashU and an Assistant Member at the Danforth Center in July 2024. Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife and three kids, playing/watching sports, and playing & streaming video games on his Twitch and YouTube platforms.

Postdoctoral Associates

Suchismita Ghosh, Ph.D. (she/her)

Suchismita (Suchi) is a first-generation college student originally from Kolkata, India. She grew up in a family of farmers and fishermen. Her grandfather grew all kinds of vegetables and crops which got her interested in plant biology. She went to St. Xaviers College, Kolkata for her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Biotechnology. Suchi soon developed a deep love for plant-pathogen interactions during her Master’s project in Bose Institute Kolkata, working with chickpea and pigeoanpea infected with Helicoverpa armigera. She decided to pursue a Ph.D. in plant-pathogen interactions soon after.

Suchi came to the United States in the fall of 2018 and joined the lab of Dr. Roger Innes for her Ph.D. where she fell in love with cell biology and observing cells under the microscope. She looked at plant-pathogen interactions using the light and electron microscopy. These passions led her to join the lab of Dr. Kevin Cox for a postdoc, where she’s taking her love for microscopy a step further to do expansion microscopy on plants and plant-pathogens.

In her spare time Suchi likes to read, paint, cook and discover new places. She is passionate about science and plants and look for ways to give back to her local community. She also volunteers to do outreach in local elementary schools for math and science tutoring and outreach. Suchi is also passionate about languages and world cultures as she speaks Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, and English fluently and is currently learning Arabic and Spanish.

Graduate Students

Hayley Sussman (she/her)

Hayley grew up in New York City and became interested in plant biology as a high school student after learning about The American Chestnut Foundation’s efforts to breed a blight-resistant American chestnut tree. This fascination led her to attend SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology in 2019. After graduation, she worked as a Research Technician at Boyce Thompson Institute in Ithaca, NY, spending most of her time there in the lab of Magdalena Julkowska, using high throughput phenotyping to study how plant architecture changes under abiotic stress. She joined the Plant and Microbial Biosciences program at Washington University in St. Louis in Fall 2024 and the Cox lab in 2025. Hayley is interested in understanding plant resilience under abiotic stress and applying this research to improve crops for the future. Outside of the lab, she enjoys rock climbing, hiking, and baking.

Dharani Elangovan, M.Sc. (she/her)

Dharani is a first-generation graduate student from Tamilnadu, India. Dharani’s passion for science inspired her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, followed by a master’s degree in Plant Physiology from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. During her master’s research, she worked on deciphering the contribution of allelic variants of the NRT1.1 gene to nitrate uptake efficiency in rice, combining her interest in plant nutrition and genetics. Dharani is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the Plant and Microbial Biosciences program at Washington University in St. Louis, and joined the Cox Lab in 2025, where she is thrilled to contribute to their research. Outside the lab, Dharani enjoys cooking, taking peaceful strolls around her neighborhood, and spending weekends with friends.

Research Staff

Gus Vogt (he/him)

Lab Manager

Gus Vogt, a native of Saint Louis, initiated his career in plant sciences at Bayer Crop Sciences in 2017. His transition to the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in 2020, working in Blake Meyers’ lab as a technician, sparked an even greater interest in plant sciences. This journey propelled him to his current role at WashU as a lab manager, where he is thrilled to contribute to the birth and growth of the Cox Lab. Outside of work, Gus enjoys camping, hiking, gardening, traveling, and watching the St. Louis Cardinals.

Madison McGregor (she/her/they/them)

Research Associate I

Madison earned her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at Columbia College-Missouri in 2021. Upon graduation, they began working at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Blake Meyers’ Lab as a Lab Assistant, later being promoted to a Research Associate. Her work in the Cox Lab focuses on utilizing transcriptomics to further understand a variety of duckweed species as they undergo different stress responses. Madison enjoys reading and reviewing books, playing with their dogs, and cooking.

Mackenzie Kasarda (she/her)

Mackenzie (Kenzie) earned her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at Columbia College-Missouri in 2022. Shortly after graduation, she joined the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Blake Meyers' lab as a Lab Technician, before being promoted to a Research Associate. She is currently working on tissue culture and transformation in non-model plant species. Kenzie enjoys spending time with friends and family, going on walks with her dog, Marlow, and playing/watching slow-pitch softball.

Research Associate I

Caroline Henry (she/her)

Data Scientist I

Caroline has been a member of the Danforth Center since she joined the Meyers Lab as an intern and then a lab technician in 2022, shortly before she earned her Bachelor of Science in Genomics and Computational Biology from Washington University in St. Louis. She continued in the Meyers Lab as a Research Associate until her move to the Bioanalytical Chemistry Facility. She joins the Cox Lab in 2025 as a Data Scientist, and is excited to shift from the wet lab to a computational role, and to be a part of a new lab. Outside of work, Caroline enjoys working out (especially playing soccer), reading, spending time with friends, and living in the wonderful city of St. Louis.

Nicole Burkett

Research Technician II (Starting May 5th 2025)

Visiting Graduate Students

Lily O’Connor (she/her)

Lily received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Puget Sound in 2018. Following a post-baccalaureate fellowship at the NIH, Lily joined the Plant and Microbial Bioscience graduate program at Washington University in Saint Louis. She is a member of Blake Meyers’ lab at UC-Davis and a visiting student in the Cox Lab at the Danforth Center. Her work focuses on understanding the gene regulatory networks controlling tapetal cell differentiation and development in maize. She enjoys spending time with friends and family, gardening, cooking, and playing soccer.