Hector Romero Soto
Program: Unspecified
Current advisor:
Undergraduate university: University of Puerto Rico-Cayey
Research summary
Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) is the major cause of urinary tract infection (UTIs) and usually colonized the gastrointestinal tract of women prior to causing infection. During my rotation in the Kau lab, I worked on the analysis of a transposon mutant library of UPEC strains to understand the genes essential for survival within the gut. With this purpose, I started the generation of a clean knockout from the fimE gene, an essential component of the Fim operon involved in the control of bacterial pili. I also worked on the characterization of individual mutants from the transposon library, performing experiments to validate and confirm growth phenotypes. Finally, I observed and assisted with ongoing experiments involving mouse UTI models.
Graduate publications