Leonor García-Bayona, Ph.D.

Leonor is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Laurie Comstock at the University of Chicago. She grew up in Bogota, Colombia and completed her Chemical Engineering and Microbiology undergraduate studies at the University of the Andes. During her doctoral work in the lab of Michael Laub at MIT, she acquired a strong background in bacterial genetics, physiology, genomics and interbacterial antagonism. Her current work aims to understand how pervasive horizontal gene flow in the human intestinal microbiota shapes interbacterial interactions in this community and determines ecosystem properties relevant to human health. How does the newly acquired gene repertoire incorporate into the recipient cell’s physiology? How can the dynamics of horizontal gene transfer be a driver of the ecology and evolution of the population? Leonor is deeply committed to facilitating equitable access for all to STEM, as a key factor for deeply needed social progress, and for the intrinsic value that people from minoritized demographics bring to the science enterprise.