Nicolas Torres

Background

About Nicolas Torres

I'm an enthusiastic and motivated scientist, with over 13 years of research experience. In 2008 I started working as a B.S. student in molecular virology, focusing on the in vitro antiviral activity of plant hormones against human viruses and the underlying mechanisms. During this time, I gained experience using tools such as PCR, Western blot, and immunofluorescence imaging. As a Ph.D. candidate, I studied the functional consequences of the interaction between regulatory dendritic cells and NK cells. As a secondary project in 2015, I established a line of work in the laboratory where we evaluated the therapeutic activity of an antitumor vaccine. During my Ph.D. I wrote several grant applications, technical reports, and research manuscripts. I routinely performed 14+ color flow cytometry in BD Fortessa X20 and MACSQuant 16 instruments; FACS in BD FACSAria IIu and Miltenyi MACSQuant Tyto instruments and 8 color flow cytometry in BD FACSCantoII and Miltenyi MACSQuant (10 and VYB) instruments. I also gained knowledge and experience with minor fluidics, optics, and software repairs of these instruments. I obtained vast experience in data analysis using Flowjo, Cytobank, and FCS Express, performed biostatistical analysis in Graphpad Prism and JMP, cell culture, PBMC isolation, molecular biology, and mouse models. For this project, I designed an in-house method to measure by flow cytometry shed soluble decoy proteins in mouse serum, which was later used in several lab projects. As a postdoctoral fellow, I started working in the glycobiology of glioblastoma multiforme. Glioblastoma patients are classified and treated based on molecular markers. However, mortality is close to 100% so there is an urgent need for new classifying markers. In this context, I developed a novel single-cell polychromatic glycophenotyping method that might aid in this task and is soon to be published. In March 2020, in light of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we proposed to explore from an immunological perspective a rational therapeutic alternative to attenuate both the viral and inflammatory pathology in patients with COVID-19. We identified a new region of the Spike (S) protein of the virus that is crucial for infecting host cells. Based on this observation, we are testing both in vitro and in vivo a library of compounds with anti-inflammatory properties that might also specifically block this region. Additionally, I am a part-time university professor of both Immunology and Genetics; a science divulgator, and in my free time a SCUBA diving instructor and technical diver.