I earned my B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez (UPRM) in 2010. Under the support of the Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (PRLSAMP), I conducted undergraduate research with Dr. Belinda Pastrana-Ríos in the Department of Chemistry of UPRM. We studied a family of calcium-binding proteins, centrins, and their interactions with molecular partners and model peptides.
In 2016 I completed my Ph.D. in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. I worked in Dr. David Schaffer's laboratory, engineering viral vectors for gene therapy and basic research applications.
Currently, I am a Fermentation Scientist in BioConsortia, Inc. in Davis, CA, where we are working on the discovery of microbial communities for enhanced agricultural yields.