Graduate research Assistant
Cornell University
Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology
Ithaca, NY 14853

January 2004-present, MS/PhD student, Plant Pathology; Department of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology, Cornell University

1998, BS Biology, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Graduate Advisor: Dr William Fry

Research Focus     

Because a long term goal of our lab is to understand the resistance reaction to P. infestans in Solanaceous plants, I chose to investigate the resistance in petunias and tomatoes stimulated by BTH which is an analogue of Salicylic acid. Previous studies in our lab showed that petunias treated with BTH acquired a significant resistance to P. infestans. Therefore, it seemed to us that the P. infestans-petunia system combined with the tomato-P. infestans system might be used to develop a more comprehensive understanding of late blight resistance. The approach I chose was to identify genes that might be involved (referred to as candidate genes) using microarray technology, and subsequently silence the selected candidates via VIGS. I am currently evaluating the phenotypic response of silenced tomato plants to P. infestans to be able to gain an insight of the role of these genes in the tomato-P. infestans interaction.

Professional Experience       

2005–2006 Graduate teaching assistant, BioG 103-104: Introductory Biology for Majors, Cornell University, Ithaca NY

2004-present Graduate research assistant, Department of Plant Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY

September 2003-January 2004 Research Assistant in the Fry’s Lab.

1999-2000 Research Assistant at the International Center for tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Colombia

Publications     

Lopez CE, Zuluaga Duque AP, Cooke R, Delseny M, Tohme J, Verdier V. (2003) Isolation of Resistance Gene Candidates (RGCs) and characterization of an RGC cluster in cassava. MOLECULAR GENETICS AND GENOMICS 269 (5): 658-671