People

The Martinez Lab in 2021

 

Principal Investigator

Luis R. Martinez, Ph.D., MBA

Luis was born and raised in Ponce, Puerto Rico and lived almost 20 years in New York City. He earned his B.S. in Industrial Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, his M.S. in Microbiology from Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.

 

Post-doctoral scholars

Claudia Charles Niño, Ph.D.

Claudia was born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México. She earned her B.S. in Clinical Chemistry from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. She lived in Ciudad de México for eight years, where she obtained M.S. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the National Autonomous University of México. In addition, she was an associate professor at the University of Guadalajara for nine years before arriving to the lab in 2021.

Vanessa Enriquez, Ph.D.

Vanessa was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and grew up in Perryton and El Paso, Texas. She is a first-generation college student who earned her B.S. in Biological Sciences with a Biomedical Concentration in 2016 and her Ph.D. in Biosciences in 2021 from the University of Texas at El Paso. She is supported by the UFCD’s Comprehensive Training Program in Oral Biology (NIH NIDCR Award # T90DE021990/R90DE022530).

Marta Reguera Gomez, Ph.D.

Marta earned her B.S. in Health Biology from the University of Alcala in Madrid (Spain) in 2014. She obtained her M.S. and Ph.D. in Tropical Parasitic Diseases from the University of Valencia (Spain) 2021, working on human emerging trematodiasis. She has also carry out research in malaria at Leiden University Medical Center (The Netherlands) as an undergraduate student and at the College of Veterinary Medicine of University of Florida (US) as a Postdoctoral Associate.

 

Graduate students

Melissa Munzen

Melissa was born in New York and was raised in the Midwest. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Music for Piano Performance, as well as a B.S. in Microbiology & Cell Science from the University of Florida. She is a Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Sciences program with concentration in Immunology and Microbiology.

 

Postbac trainee

Ariana Goncalves Garcia

Ariana was born in Caracas, Venezuela and was raised since the age of eight in Morovis, Puerto Rico. She earned her B.S. in Industrial Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Her goal is to always be able to work combining her bachelor’s degree in microbiology with neuroscience, an area that she is passionate about. She eventually aspires to do an MD or Ph.D., if possible a combination of both in the area of neurology or immunology.

 

Undergraduate students

Christopher Alvarado

Christopher was born and raised in Naples, Florida and is currently at the University of Florida pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology & Cell Science with a minor in Anthropology. After completing his undergraduate degree, he hopes to either attend medical school and become a physician or pursue a Ph.D. in Microbiology. 

Jordan Rodriguez

Jordan was born and raised in Miami, Florida and later, moved to Port Saint Lucie, Florida for one year. During his time in Port Saint Lucie, he became certified as an EMT. He is now part of the NIH SF2UF: A new Bridges to the Baccalaureate program (5R25GM115298-05) at Santa Fe College, and hopes to transfer to the University of Florida. After attaining his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology he plans to attend medical school for a career in Emergency Medicine.