Curriculum Vitae

Scientist with extensive experimental, computational, and clinical research experience, translating biomedical observations into mathematical models

Research & Work Experience

Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow

• Modeling cancer using 20 million cells and 200+ spatial proteomes

Scientist (Postdoctoral Researcher)
Spatial Proteomics Lab (Fabian Coscia), Max Delbrück Center
March 2024 – May 2025 | Berlin, Germany | 40h/wk

• Built a parallelized modular image pipeline for analyzing 150+ TMA cores, including new methods for noise reduction, quantification, and thresholding

• Developed composite method to segment 65k cells in 1mm biopsies, capturing diverse morphologies without retraining neural network

• Trained random forest to enable generalized automated thresholding with spatial data (F1 = 0.93, n = 16k), avoiding manual user annotations

Doctoral Student
Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin
July 2023 – January 2024 | Berlin, Germany | 40h/wk

• Adapted ecological differential equations set to model inflammation

Doctoral Fellow
Visualization of Immune Signaling Lab (Marcus Taylor), Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology
April 2019 – June 2023 | Berlin, Germany | 40h/wk

• Developed an end-to-end image analysis pipeline by self-teaching Python, Java, and R, enabling single-click analysis

• Applied phase portrait analysis to molecular dynamics with physicists

• Trained 13 experimentalists in computing, transforming the lab to data-driven research

• Cultured mammalian cell lines, functionalized supported lipid bilayers, and used TIRF microscopy to image reconstituted cell-cell interactions

Graduate Research Assistant
Synthetic Biology Lab (Sebastian Schmidl), Texas A&M International University
February 2016 – August 2018 | Laredo, Texas, USA | 20h/wk

• Evolved E. coli to >10,000× higher ampicillin MIC, deriving a model of antibiotic resistance dynamics

• Ran 200+ proteome comparisons for new astrobiological signatures

Research Assistant II
Matrix Biology Lab (Raghu Kalluri), MD Anderson Cancer Center
October 2014 – December 2015 | Houston, Texas, USA | 40h/wk

• Investigated the link between fibrosis and cancer using mice models; contributions acknowledged in Nature and Science Signaling

• Independently performed breeding, genotyping, western blots, microscopy, and histology

• Managed procurement (~$50,000/year)

• Designed system to organize and genetically screen 1000+ mice cages

Education

Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in Theoretical Biophysics, Magna cum laude
Humboldt University of Berlin
May 2020 – Jan. 2024 | Germany

M.Sc. in Biology
Texas A&M International University
Apr. 2016 – Dec. 2017 | USA

B.Sc. in Biology, Minor in World Affairs
Baylor University
Aug. 2009 – Aug. 2014 | USA

Awards

Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship – US Department of State
2025 – Present | USA
Top 13%.

First Place, Public Choice – Helmholtz Association
June 2025 | Germany
Scientific image, top 1%. Awarded €600

Full-Ride Scholarship (Physiology Course) – Marine Biological Laboratory
June 2022 – July 2023 | USA
Top 15%. Awarded $8,595

Public Policy

Participant, Technical Community
United Nations Internet Governance Forum
Oct. 2023 – Present | Rotating

• Discussed implications of AI for biomedical research, food security, and weapons of mass destruction

Scientific Advisor
Independent
Apr. 2020 – July 2020 | Remote | 15h/wk

• Forecasted COVID-19 spread for Laredo City Council (pop. 255k) to plan state/federal aid

• Featured in TV/radio interview on COVID-19 forecasts

• Presented COVID-19 projections for Puerto Rico (pop. 3.3M) on state TV

Publications

Full list: Link

Languages

• Spanish (native)

• English (native)

• German (CEFR B1)

• Italian (CEFR B1)

Skills & Expertise

Experimental

• Molecular biology (PCR, western blots), cell cultures (mammalian, yeast, bacterial)

• Drug discovery (IC-50), antibiotic resistance (MIC)

• Mice (surgery, histology, protocol writing)

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

• PyTorch, TensorFlow, Caret (R)

• Classification, dimensionality reduction, regression analysis

Data Science

• Python (numpy, pandas, ray, matplotlib, scikit, scipy, SciJava, Pillow)

• R (tidyverse, data.table, parallel, ggplot2)

• HPC (SLURM), cloud computing (Google Colab)

Image Analysis

• Python (OpenCV, scikit-image), ImageJ/FIJI

• Segmentation, particle tracking, noise reduction, TMA analysis, colocalization, 3D reconstruction, texture analysis

Bioinformatics

• Comparative proteomics, genomics, sequence alignment, plasmid design

Clinical Medicine

• Ethics committee (IRB) protocols, patient data collection, molecular diagnostics, epidemiology

Microscopy

• Light, confocal, TIRF, SEM, structured illumination (super-resolution)