Research

The current portfolio is organized around two projects: an undergraduate thesis in cave microbiology and an ongoing collaboration on mitochondrial physiology in yeast.

Projects

These projects differ in setting, organism, and method, but together they define the current range of my work across microbial ecology and cellular physiology.

Sebastian Correa-Gallego collecting samples inside a cave in Antioquia, Colombia.

Cultivable Microbial Community Structure along a Light Gradient in a Tropical Volcaniclastic Cave

Undergraduate thesis

Universidad EAFIT
  • Advisor Prof. Nicolás Pinel Peláez

This project examines how cultivable microbial communities vary as illumination, microclimate, and substrate conditions change across a confined subterranean system. The Organal San Antonio cave provides a clear gradient that can be followed from illuminated entrance zones toward darker sectors.

My work combines field characterization, zonation, microclimatic records, cultivation workflows, and morphotype-based community assessment. At this stage, the scope is descriptive and ecological: to document cultivable community structure along the gradient and to interpret those patterns within the cave environment.

microbial ecologysubterranean systemscommunity assemblycultivable microbiologyfield ecology
Thesis in progress
Working diagram of the cave light gradient used in the undergraduate thesis.
Working cave-gradient diagram used in thesis development and presentation material.
Figure showing morphotypes distributed across the cave light gradient.
Morphotype summary across the sampled cave gradient.
Fluorescence microscopy image showing mitochondrial staining on a dark background.

Yeast Mitochondria Project

Visiting Student Intern and ongoing collaborator

Purdue University
  • Advisor Dr. Shahed U. A. Shazib
  • PI Dr. Sergio A. Muñoz-Gómez

At Purdue, I contributed to a project examining proteomic resource allocation to mitochondria across carbon regimes using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system. The work connects mitochondrial function, proteome composition, and cellular organization across physiological conditions.

My contribution took place during a Visiting Student Internship and continues through collaborative manuscript preparation. The description on this site remains intentionally general because the manuscript is still in preparation.

evolutionary cell biologymitochondriayeast physiologyproteomicscellular resource allocation
Manuscript in preparation

Technical skills

Laboratory & Biological Methods

Microbial Cultivation Environmental Sampling Ecological Field Records Morphotype Characterization Yeast Handling Cell Physiology Microscopy

Quantitative & Computational

R Python Linux / Bash LaTeX QGIS Data Visualization Bioinformatics

Scientific & Digital Workflows

Scientific Writing Research Communication Literature Synthesis Figure Preparation Data Organization

Languages

Spanish (native) English (working proficiency)