Alumni

Andrés is a Research Scientists at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT. He is a microbiologist with expertise in synthetic biology and genomics. His work focuses the development of an engineered live biotherapeutic (eLBP) platform that targets the gut microbiota for the prevention and treatment of human diseases. As a visiting scholar in the Wyss Living Cellular Devices platform, Andrés has led a Wyss Validation Project aiming at using an eLBP for the prevention of antibiotic-induced dysbiosis and its associated pathologies. He received his B.S. and M. Sc. in Microbiology from Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. Andrés obtained his Ph. D. in Microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the mentorship of Institute Professor Sallie W. Chisholm. For his postdoctoral work, Andres joined the laboratory of Dr. James J. Collins at MIT where he applied synthetic biology approaches to endow bacteria with diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities.

Thesis : Ecology and evolution of lanthipeptides in marine picocyanobacteria

Thesis : Allosteric activation ofperiplasmic HtrA proteases

Thesis : Identification and characterization of Toxoplasma gondii effectors that modulate innate immune pathways

Thesis : Prochlorococcus: life in light

Thesis : Aneuploidy causes proteotoxic stress in Saccharomyces cerevisiae