Personal Bio:

I was born in Cali, Colombia. I received my B.S. and M.S. in chemistry from Universidad del Valle. My undergraduate research was based on the implementation of methodology for determination of Chromium in urine and blood by using ETAAS. After graduation I worked in Colombia for around 3 year, where I have had the opportunity to work in a biotechnological company (yeast production) as a quality assurance chemist, in a pharmaceutical company (Baxter Healthcare Corporation) as a chemist of stability, and in a milk products company as lab manager assistant. I came back to school to do my M.S. in analytical chemistry where my research work was on the development of carbon fiber microelectrodes: surface electrochemically activated and modified with overoxidized polypyrrole for the electroanalysis of xanthine. During my master degree studies, I worked as teaching assistant in the following courses: Analytical Chemistry Lab and Lecture, Instrumental Analysis Lab and Industrial Analysis Lab.

Research Interest:

I am working on bioanalytical applications of nanotubes membranes for DNA sensing, and protein sensing and separation. The objective of this research is to develop new types of highly selective nanotube membranes for use in bioanalysis. This entails preparing membranes that have highly selective biomacromolecules covalently attached onto the nanotube walls. In particular, I am investigating a nanotube membrane DNA sensor based on PNA-DNA hybridization, and nanotube membranes for protein sensing and separation using antibodies as the molecular-recognition agent.