Cristian Sanlatte

Hello, my name is Cristian Sanlatte Reyes and I was born and raised in Carolina, Puerto Rico. I have B.S. in Industrial Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez campus. My research interests focus on plant-microbe-environment interactions. I believe that environmental science is a very underrepresented discipline with a heavy toll on all aspects of life as we know it. Therefore, important questions that are of my interests are: how do plant and microbe interactions work? Furthermore, how are these affected by environmental stressors that are occurring due to climate change? Seeking to gather a more robust research training, the NIH Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program at the University of Georgia (NIH PREP@UGA) gave me the chance to venture within these environmental questions while simultaneously giving me the experience of preparing myself to make the best decision for a graduate PhD program. During my time at UGA, I first worked in the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Dr. Michael Adam’s laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Goff and Farris Poole. Here I worked with tungsten utilization by the anaerobic denitrifying microorganisms Zoogloea ramigera. The main objective was to determine the effects of toxic and essential metals on the microbe by monitoring its growth, measuring metal uptake, and nitrogen oxide production by plate assays and gas chromatography. Next, I worked in the Marine Sciences department with Dr. Mary Ann Moran under the supervision of William Shroer and Christa Smith. Here I worked on the use of random barcode transposon sequencing (RBTn-Seq) library growth trends upon diverse ocean metabolites. The main objectives were to discover and annotate unknown gene-substrate uptake functions and determine whether transposon location inside the gene of interest affects its expression. Lastly, I took a Bioprocessing Technology course given by Dr. David Blum and T.A./Dr. Marley Brimberry. Here I learned the theory and practice of biotechnological biomanufacturing. The course guided me to understanding and performing from the complete upstream (production) to downstream (purification) process of a recombinant TURBO RED fluorescent protein (TURBO-RFP) within E. coli. I learned how to perform industrial laboratory techniques such as bacterial transformation, cell lysis through sonication, immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC), hydrophobic interactions chromatography (HIC) and SDS-PAGE analysis. My experience within UGA exposed me to a varied, strong and research-intensive environment where I definitely felt I was gathering an extensive amount of training that boosted my confidence as a student trainee. They did not only equip me with a great set of research skills, but also helped me recognize what type of research, community, and program I wanted to apply for a PhD program. PREP@UGA gave me an experience that surpassed my expectations. I highly recommend incoming students to take advantage of all the faculty and resources, plus make sure to identify what are your requirements as a scientist and as a person, for your incoming PhD degree.

After finishing my program at UGA, I am currently starting my Microbial Biology PhD program at Rutgers University in New Brunswick!