Victor Plascencia Pérez

EDUCATION

College / University

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Highest Degree

Bachelor of Science

Major Subjects

Genomic Sciences

Country

Mexico

Lab Experience

Synthetic & Molecular Biology: Gibson, restriction enzyme, Golden Gate, and 3G cloning; construct design in Geneious; bacterial transformation; gel electrophoresis; PCR/RT-qPCR; CRISPR-Cas systems, luminescence assays
Cell Biology: Mammalian cell culture, transfection, and lentiviral transduction; flow cytometry; magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS)
Animal Husbandry & Microinjection: Husbandry and adult microinjection of planarian Schmidtea mediterranea; husbandry and embryo microinjection of acoel Hofstenia miamia and flatworm Macrostomum spp.; field sampling and ribosomal sequencing
Bioinformatics: Genome assembly and alignment; protein 3D structural alignment (AlphaFold); DNA motif identification

Projects / Research

2025 – 2026: Development of a high-sensitivity, cost-effective tool for mapping transgene insertions in the genome across different species
2025 – 2026: Development of gene-editing tools for the study of regeneration in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea
2024 – 2025: Development and application of algorithms to predict transcription factor binding sites based on structural protein similarities
2023 – 2024: Role of two long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) in the transcriptional stress response
2023: Role of RNase H1 (RH1) and RNase H2 (RH2) in R-loop clearance in a TET enzyme-deficient mouse model
2022 – 2023: Assessment of quorum-sensing autoinduction systems for the production of antifungal compounds
2018 – 2019: Assessment of bacterial strains able to inhibit bovine mastitis pathogens, and development of formulations to combat the disease

Publications and Patents

Plascencia Perez, V.U., Bravo Madrigal, J., Garcia Carvajal, Z.Y. Pharmaceutical composition for preventing bovine mastitis. Patent number: MX/a/2020/013639>

Scholarships / Awards

2026 – 2027:	Stipend by the International Max Planck Research School
2025:	Graduates with Honors (ranked top 1 Student in Genomic Sciences class of 2025)
2023:	La Jolla Institute for Immunology Summer Internship
2019:	International Chemistry Olympiad 2019 honorable mention

SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS AND GOALS

I started out in science interested in using synthetic biology as a tool to generate products with impact in medicine, agriculture, and environmental science. I later learned how I could apply these same synbio principles to develop gene-editing tools to study biological processes across a wide variety of organisms. Among those processes, I'm especially intrigued by the molecular mechanisms different organisms use to maintain stem cell populations beyond embryonic development, and what drives these cells to orchestrate processes like regeneration, rejuvenation, metamorphosis, and reproduction. As a grad student, though, I'm eager to explore disciplines across a variety of fields that remain unexplored to me. I also aspire to conduct research with a multidisciplinary approach, incorporating techniques and technology from fields ranging from physics to biochemistry to computational biology