Edgardo obtained his BS degree from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez Campus, where he was a NIGMS-MARC U*STAR Fellow. During this time, he was awarded the Frank G. Brooks Award for Excellence in Student Research for the Caribbean Region of the BBB NBHS, and a Minority Undergraduate Research Fellowship from ASM. He completed his Ph.D. at NYU-Sackler Institute in Dr. Martin Blaser’s lab, and his dissertation explored the mechanisms used by pathogenic bacteria to adapt to their host environment, using Helicobacter pylori as a model system. Edgardo was the recipient of a MARC-NIGMS Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Fellowship from the NIH, and was also awarded the Leadership Alliance- Schering-Plough Graduate Fellowship. Afterwards he completed his Postocotoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the lab of Roberto Kolter, where he explored and developed high-throughput screens to identify novel anti-biofilm compounds and developed secondary assays to study inhibition of biofilm development in Bacillus subtilis. After 3 years in industry at two biotech start-ups (Sample6 and Symbiota), he has now joined the John Jay College's PRISM program as their academic advisor and undergraduate research coordinator.