Announcements, mentee milestones, and plain-language science from the Institute.
RIPLRT collaborator Dr. Filipa Godoy-Vitorino, Professor and Chair of Microbiology and Immunology at the UPR Medical Sciences Campus, will receive the American Society for Microbiology's 2027 Award for Graduate Education.
RIPLRT mentee Emily Solomon earned her M.S. in Biological Sciences at Lynn University with a capstone thesis, advised by Dr. Rivera-Mariani, evaluating polygenic risk scores for endometriosis and early menopause.
SporeLag, an R package by Dr. Félix E. Rivera-Mariani for building lagged and moving-average environmental exposure variables, has been accepted into the Comprehensive R Archive Network.
Presented at ASM Microbe 2026 in Washington, DC: fungal spores, but not pollen, provide a reproducible short-lead signal of RSV incidence across two health regions of Puerto Rico.
Félix E. Rivera-Mariani has been appointed ad-honorem Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the UPR Medical Sciences Campus.
A RIPLRT abstract in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (ASBMB 2026 supplement) uses mechanism-aware machine learning to link plasma proteomics to single-cell signaling and compactly classify COVID-19 severity.
Congratulations to Emily Pintilie, who defended her Lynn University M.S. thesis on the behavioral and molecular effects of the herbicide 2,4-D in planarians, with Dr. Rivera-Mariani on her committee.
RIPLRT mentees and collaborators presented research on outdoor airborne fungal spores, asthma healthcare utilization, and respiratory viral incidence across Puerto Rico at the Alliance for Clinical and Translational Research annual conference.
Lorraine N. Vélez-Torres defended her PhD thesis on indoor fungal bioaerosols after Hurricane Maria flooding, mentored by Dr. Benjamín Bolaños-Rosero and Dr. Félix E. Rivera-Mariani.
The Department of Microbiology of the University of Puerto Rico – Medical Sciences Campus announced an open position for experts in bacteriology.
A University of Puerto Rico study in Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health measured mold levels in Piñones homes after Hurricane Maria.
