Research Experience

Taylor (Visualization of Immune Signaling) Laboratory, 04.2019 – Present

Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany

• Studied the biophysics of innate immunity, focusing on MyD88-dependent IL-1 signaling

• Discovered that the Myddosome assembles de novo, sequentially, as well as its IRAK4 regulation

• Created an R/Python pipeline that processed and quantified images—over 100 million datapoints

• Collaborated with soft matter physicists to interrogate the dynamics of assembly

• Learned to prep and image cells on top of a supported lipid bilayer using TIRF microscopy

Collaborators: Miguel Sierra Hoffman, MD; Rafael J Deliz, MD

• Modeled Laredo, Texas COVID-19 epidemiology for the City Council and its grant applications

• Published hospital case-reports in infectious diseases and respiratory medicine

• Studied the epidemiology of South Texas using primary care health records

• Implemented biostatistics to improve patient care while lowering federal healthcare costs

Texas A&M International University, Laredo, Texas

• Designed and led translational medicine research experiments in infectious diseases

• Established evolutionary relationships in phylum Tenericutes using comparative proteomics

• Generated mathematical models of antibiotic resistance for the clinic and biodefense

• Ran clinical diagnostics, including bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility tests

MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas

• Focused on the role of kidney and colon fibrosis in cancer using murine models

• Created models of cancer and metastasis, including breast, and prostate cancer metastasis

• Did projects independently, from breeding to histology, slide analysis and molecular testing

• Inspected mice models with unexpected phenotypes for experimental design improvement

Baylor University, and University of Stuttgart, Waco, Texas

• Contributed a method for dusty (complex) plasma model particle tracking using image analysis

• Found that particles fell faster than gravitational expectations after chamber deionization

• Gathered facts for reapplying for GEAR-UP Waco, a US$11.3 million federal grant

Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas

• Analyzed melanin coverage in Lake Malawi cichlids for correlation with rapid speciation genetics

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Baylor University, Waco, Texas

• Tested the viability of small molecule inhibitors for treating Chagas’ disease and tumor invasion

• Validated protease activity using western blots and IC-50 assays

Department of Biology, Baylor University, Waco, Texas

• Studied the Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay (NMD) pathway, a self-repair mechanism, in yeast

• Co-discovered how NMD regulates mRNA expression in wild-type yeast with long 3’-UTRs

• Observed copper tolerance in NMD knockouts, linking alternate processing to NMD targeting