Dr. Alejandro Arana Sánchez
Detalle BN6
- Inicio
- Dr. Alejandro Arana Sánchez
Dr. Alejandro Arana Sánchez
Deparment of Tecnological and Industrial Procceces
aarana@iteso.mx
Phone. 3669 3434 Ext. 3677
Location: Biotechnology Laboratory, Technology Park.
PhD in Industrial Biotechnology.
Chemical Engineer from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO AC), with a master degree and a PhD in Industrial Biotechnology from the Centro de Investigación y Asistencia en Tecnología y Diseño del Estado de Jalisco (CIATEJ). I was part of the postgraduate cooperation program (PCP) in a bilateral Project between Mexico and France in which I carried out two stays at the Université de Montpellier. During my studies, I was specialized in yeasts, mainly non-Saccharomyces. My work was focused on its identification through molecular biology techniques, the elucidation of the cell´s physiological state using morphology, cell size and dielectric spectroscopy approaches and the production of metabolites in chemostat cultures, controlling parameters with an in house developed software. I have two published papers as first author, a paper as co-author and a submitted patent.
In the master's studies, I was part or a SAGARPA project, in which artisanal cacao beans fermentations were sampled in Tabasco, in order to isolate and identify the yeasts that were part in the process. At the time, this study showed the highest quantity of isolated yeast from a cacao fermentation process. During my PhD, I worked with a non-Saccharomyces yeast, Kluyveromyces marxianus, for the evaluation of physiological states throughout the production of ß-fructofuranosidases, using dielectric spectroscopy. This project was a Mexico-France collaboration between 3 Mexican research center/university, 3 French research center/university and a French technological development enterprise. During my postdoctoral studies, I worked with chemostat cultures, controlling the dilution rates in order to obtain high esters concentration from a non-Saccharomyces yeast, for a posterior gene expression and RT-PCR analysis.
At this moment, I am working in a biological control project, in which we are trying to isolate, identify and characterize microorganisms from several artisanal fermentation processes that could have a potential use in biological control. This project has the involvement of two universities, ITESO among them, a research center and a berry producer.