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Ángela Plaza

PhD in Molecular Bioscience

Post-doctoral Fellow
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Santiago, Chile
E-mail: angela.plaza@usach.cl

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Education

PhD in Molecular Bioscience, Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile

Biochemistry, Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile

SUMMARY

Dr. Angela Plaza obtained her Biochemistry and Master’s degree at Universidad Andrés Bello in 2014. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in microbiology, characterizing in-hospital pathogens and their mechanisms of persistence against environmental conditions such as oxygen and disinfectants. Subsequently, she worked in the FONIS project (SA12I2197) associated with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, whose objective was to structure a clinical protocol for dealing with hospital-acquired diarrhea according to the epidemiology of Clostridium difficile. 

 

In 2020, she finished her Ph.D. studies in Molecular Biosciences at the Andrés Bello University, where she researched the persistence mechanism of bacteria present in the human intestinal microbiota. In turn, during her doctoral work, she generated the entire protocol to isolate and characterize bacteria present in the human intestinal microbiota, highlighting those bacteria that can grow in the absence of oxygen (anaerobiosis).   She has worked with different microorganisms related to the intestinal microbiota, such as Clostridium difficile, Bacillus subtilis, and Escherichia coli, among others, during her academic development. In parallel, Dr. Plaza has actively participated in teaching microbiology laboratories at Andrés Bello University and AIEP Institute.

 

Currently, Dr. Plaza is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Civil Works Engineering at the University of Santiago de Chile, where she works with Dr. Cristina Villamar. The project she develops her research focuses on the permanence, interaction, and treatment of emerging contaminants and pathogenic microorganisms from domestic wastewater. This project seeks to generate a mechanism for detecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is the cause of the current global pandemic (COVID-19), developed in the laboratory of Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Water Technology (Ko-Yaku).

 

Dr. Plaza describes herself as a responsible person, committed to teamwork. She is willing to collaborate to address current problems from different points of view, applying other disciplines and areas of knowledge.