Sobre Mi:
Academics:
1. BS Biology - Cayey Campus UPR
2. Ph.D. Sciences in microbiology - Medical
Sciences Campus UPR 2006
Work experience
1. Scientist - Quality Control Microbiology labs -Schering-plough Pharmaceuticals 1993-1999
2. Assistant Professor - Department of microbiology - San Juan Bautista School of Medicine
3. Reseach Associate & adjunct professor - Department of microbiology, Medical Sciences Campus UPR
Memberships & honors
1.Who's Who of Professionals - Commitment to Excellence, year 2000
2. American Society for Microbiology
Información de proyecto:
1. Lateral transfer of antibiotic resistance genes by plasmids in bacteria.
2. Recombination in bacteria and role in pathogenesis - The Neisseria gonorrhoeae model. The causative agent of the sexually transmitted disease (STD) gonorrhea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae is re-emerging as an important pathogen. It has become a successful pathogen because of its multiple and diverse recombination mechanisms that mediate the lateral transfer of new genes through conjugation and transformation and that contribute to the survival and persistence within its sole human host. My research interest is to understand the contribution of illegitimate recombination to the Neisseria gonorrhoeae mosaic genome, its role in other essential DNA events such as replication and repair and the genes involved.
3. Human microbial ecology and role in respiratory disease - The incidence of asthma has increased worldwide over the past decade. Factors that influence the development and severity of asthma include environmental exposures, genetic predisposition and infection. The role of infection in the aetiology of asthma is complex and in most instances, studies have not demonstrated cause and effect relationships. Recent evidence suggests that the overall load of microbial agents; including respiratory viruses, instead of a specific infection is an important factor in the etiology of asthma. Current understanding of the role of microorganisms in asthma has been hampered by the intrinsic limitation of the conventional culture-dependent methods. These “culturable” microorganisms only represent a minimal fraction of the complex and diverse natural respiratory microbiota. The advantages of the recently developed molecular techniques for microbial community analysis over culture-based approaches provide novel opportunities to generate an unbiased characterization of the microbial population in the asthmatic environment. I am interested in the use of both metagenomics and PCR-based tools for microbial community analysis to understand the direct role of the natural respiratory microbiota in the pathogenesis of asthma through the identification and control of novel microbial agents and /or asthma-predisposing virulence genes.