Please visit Dr. Pinto's website at: http://www.zompopas.com/en/ to find out more about the leaf cutter ants, his research team, and interesting facts about Costa Rica.
As you can see by his bio (found on the zompopas website), he really loves ants.
Adrian Pinto Thomas was born in 1977 in San Jose, Costa Rica and made professional studies at the Faculty of Microbiology of the University of Costa Rica, graduating with a degree in Microbiology and Clinical Chemistry in 2000. He later obtained a Masters at the University of Costa Rica and graduated as Master in Microbiology with emphasis on Cell and Molecular Biology in 2002. During the 2002-2008 period studied doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, initially in the Plant Pathology Program and later in Doctoral Program in Microbiology, which ended in December 2008. from January 2009 rejoined the University of Costa Rica as a professor in the Department of Biochemistry of the Faculty of Medicine and researcher at the CIEMic.
Dr. Pinto works in the area of microbial ecology and studies the symbiotic interactions between social insects and microorganisms, particularly those with potential applications in biotechnology and medicine. Currently Dr. Pinto works in the isolation and characterization of biological control agents for leaf-cutting ants, one of the major agricultural pest in Costa Rica. It also uses techniques of electron microscopy and fluorescence to describe the degradation of cellulose in the nests of these ants, as this natural model can be used in the generation of modern biofuels from plant waste.
We can't wait to work with Dr. Pinto.
No comments:
Post a Comment