Plant and microbial biology PhD candidate Luis Valentin-Alvarado breaks down his research and offers us a peek into a day in the lab at the Innovative Genomics Institute in this new Science at Cal video.
Produced in partnership with the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco’s “Día de la Ciencia” event at the 2022 Bay Area Science Festival, the video offers the Spanish-speaking community an opportunity to interact with scientists from different fields and disciplines. English-language captions are available throughout the video.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Valentin-Alvarado studied microbiology and chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, Humacao. Before beginning his PhD in microbiology at Cal, he worked as a research assistant for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Bergen.
Valentin-Alvarado hopes to advance the science and technology of genome editing by discovering and harnessing novel CRISPR-Cas and related systems through bioinformatics and biochemistry. He is a graduate student in the labs of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management Professor Jill Banfield and Molecular and Cell Biology Professor David Savage.
Learn more about Valentin-Alvarado’s work in our latest issue of Breakthroughs, and watch other videos in the series at the Science at Cal website.