Halmos College Faculty and Students Attend American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting

On the weekend of October 20, Halmos College biology faculty member Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D. travelled to Orlando, FL to attend the Florida Branch of the American Society for Microbiology (FLASM) Annual Meeting. Attending with her were three of her independent research study students. Torruellas Garcia is a branch officer for FLASM and helped organize the conference.

At the conference, NSU was well represented by the Students. Honors student Samir Nacer, a senior biology and neuroscience major, won 1st place for his poster presentation of his honors thesis research entitled, “Evaluation of Soil Bacteria for Antibiotic Activity and Type III Secretion System Inhibitors.” Honors student Nikolas Ujueta, a senior biology major, won 1st place for his oral presentation, “Evaluating the Efficacy of the Clorox Total 360 System to Eliminate Bacteria on Hard-to-Reach Surfaces.” Honors student Miguel Portales Guemes, a senior biology major, presented his research poster entitled, “A Search for Type III Secretion System Inhibitors Produced by Soil Bacteria.” Miguel received a travel award from PAN SGA to attend the conference.

The Florida Branch of the American Society for Microbiology is dedicated to promoting the advancement of microbiological research in the State of Florida and to communicate these findings to other researchers, students and the general public.

For more information http://www.flasm.org/index.html