About

Sergio is a Ph.D. candidate in the bioengineering department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is U.S. citizen of Hispanic descent (Mexican heritage) and is currently working in the laboratory of Dr. Andrew Kummel at UCSD’s Moores Cancer Center. His research over the past five years has dealt with developing devices for detecting breast tumor cells intra-operatively in surgical margins and creating targeted nanoparticles for drug delivery systems. Sergio is currently using two different nanoparticle platforms for drug delivery systems: (1) inorganic SiO2 hollow nanospheres and (2) bio-degradable PLGA-Lipid hybrid nanoparticles. He has shown that nanoparticles are as cytotoxic as free drug in in vitro studies in breast and ovarian cancer cell lines. Currently, he is in the process of refining the targeting capabilities of these nanoparticles in order to specifically target cancer cells and spare toxicity in normal tissue.

Education

UC San Diego

Ph.D. , Bioengineering

Class of 2011

Awards & Publications