Biographical Sketch
Abner J. González Castro
Current Status
Junior Undergraduate Student
Department of Biology, UPR-RP
Email: abnergonzalez84@yahoo.com
Education
2011-present
2016
UPR - Río Piedras
BS Biology (expected)
Research Interests:
I am interested in the branch of biotechnology and genetic engineering. We want to recombine a
phospholipases A2 (PLA2) protein by inserting the PLA2 gene to a bacteria plasmid. This
recombination will serve us to reproduce the gene of interest and can transcript it more
efficiently to work with this protein. Secreted PLA2 participate in a web of relevant pathways in
many diseases and play an important role in inflammation. Recombinant PLA2 will help us to
investigate independent amino acid residues that may have critical role in protein-membrane
binding, substrate binding and possible protein-protein interactions.
Research Experience
August 2012 – present
Undergraduate Research
Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras,
PR
Mentor: Reginald W. Morales, PhD
Research Project: “Recombinant expression, refolding, and
purification of a snake venom secreted Phospholipase A2”
Fellowships and Awards
2014
Minority Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Fellow,
UPRRP