Daniel Paredes-Sabja, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University. He is interested the fundamental mechanisms that drive persistence of enteropathogens in the gastrointestinal tract and how to develop therapeutics to combat persistence. Daniel earned his Ph.D. from Oregon State University, where he also did his postdoctoral work.
Marjorie Pizarro-Guajardo, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Scientist and is interested in unraveling how C. difficile forms different types of exosporium layers and how these contribute to disease. She is also spearheading vaccine-prototypes against C. difficile. Marjorie received her Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Universidad Andrés Bello.
Osiris K. López García is a Ph.D. student in the Interdisciplinary Program of Genetics and Genomics at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on the study of the interactions between the exosporium of Clostridioides difficile and the host. She received her bachelor’s degree in Industrial Microbiology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.
Javier Sanchez-Peralta is a PhD student student in the Microbiology program of the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University. Javier is studying how cysteine-rich proteins govern the assembly of the exosporium layer in C. difficile spores. He is also developing TEM and Cryo-EM techniques to gain ultrastructural insight of the role of these proteins in spore surface assembly. He earned his undergraduate degree in Biology at Texas A&M University.
Francisca Cid-Rojas is a Ph.D student in the Microbiology program of the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University. She is currently studying the exosporium assembly and the interaction of its components within Clostridioides difficile’s spore. Before joining TAMU, Francisca received her undergraduate degree at Universidad Andrés Bello.
Michael Debrah-Acheampong is a Ph.D student in the Microbiology program of the Department of Biology at Texas A&M University. His research currently relates to address how C. difficile toxins reshape the intestinal mucosa to contribute to persistence of C. difficile during disease. He earned his Masters in Molecular Biology degree at the University of Ghana.
Tristan Yeager is a Microbiology Masters student at Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on the identification of novel genes implicated in the assembly of the outer spore layers of Clostridioides difficile. Tristan also received her bachelors degree in Biology at Texas A&M University.
Undergraduate researchers:
Wadiah Khan
Dominic Tharakan
Smrithi Chandy
Imogen Southerland
Trey Hejtmancik
Evan Ji
Mahek Rawat
Emily Capehart
Junyoung (Jun) Ahn
Estefany Rueda-Chavez
Siva Thimmisetty
Rohan Keshwala
TAMU Past members:
Sidharth Belaguli: undergraduate researcher
Yash Vaggar: undergraduate researcher
Mariana Tostado: undergraduate researcher
Yulia Kirk: undergraduate researcher