About Me:
Professor of Biology and Biotechnology at Miami Dade College, Wolfson campus. I hold a Bachelors in Science from University of Puerto Rico (major in mathematics) and an MA and PhD in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology from University of Texas at Austin. I was hired by Florida Memorial University in 1997 and co-founded alongside with Professor William Hopper an Ecology Club, sponsored by a SEEDS grant and the Ecology Society of America, Strategies for Ecology Education, Diversity and Sustainability. In 1998, I moved to Miami Dade College an accepted a post as an Assistant Professor of Biology. I am a currently a Professor of Biology at Miami Dade College for 15 years. I currently supervised undergraduate student research projects through a National Science Foundation, Advanced Technological Education program support grant, also direct the Microbiology and Biotechnology Preparatory rooms for our campus, and also serve as the college-wide Biology Faculty Convener and Director of our campus Biology Discipline committee. Interests are varied but always related to microbial systems and genome discovery.
Project Info:
NSF ATE DUE 0802508 "The Biotechnology Research Learning Collaborative" - 2008-2012
The Biotechnology Research Learning Collaborative (BRLC), integrates experiential, inquiry, and contextual learning within a scientific laboratory context, designed to promote cross-disciplinary, team-, problem-, and project-based learning. The major goal of this program is to promote high-level cognitive interaction within peer-collaborative grouping at Miami Dade College thus improving students’ academic success and achievements in the Biosciences. BRLC will also has raised the pedagogical skill level of all biotechnology instructors in research-based learning. BRLC has implemented two research projects.
One research project engage students academically in the attempts to generate substantial coverage for the Gram-positive bacterium Clostridium taeniosporum DNA genome using high-throughput genomic sequencing technology; the second research venture expose students to upscale protein production as performed in the bioscience manufacturing industry and guide them through good manufacturing and laboratory practices and standard operating procedures; as required by the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to upscale Green-Fluorescent (GF) protein production by increasing Escherichia coli biomass in a Bioreactor, followed by protein purification and further purification of the protein bulk using column chromatography. Students have eluted purified final products using sterile techniques as per good manufacturing practices.
During the three-year implementation of these projects, 34 students have been recruited, mostly minorities, from economically disadvantaged and women, and they were trained in various stages of research.
The Biotechnology Research Learning Collaborative (BRLC) has paved the road for the recruitment and retention of very qualified and motivated undergraduates, and as already mentioned, predominantly from economically disadvantaged groups and women.