Axl S. Cepeda
In January 2021, I started my Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. Ananias A. Escalante at Temple University. Research at the Escalante's Lab focuses on the ecology, epidemiology and evolution of infectious diseases. I am interested in establishing bridges among population genetics, ecological, and evolutionary biology perspectives by interpreting genomic patterns from pathogens (mainly in Plasmodium spp.) and integrating them with environmental or epidemiologic information.
Escalante's Lab 👨🏼🔬👨🏽💻
Department of Biology, iGEM 📊👩🏻⚕️
Temple University 🏫🇺🇸
About me
My Story
I was born and raised in Bogotá-Colombia. Since I was a child, I have always been interested in science, mainly in astronomy. Every time I looked at the sky, I was amazed by the immensity of the universe. One day my mother brought home some frogs that she had found on the road, and from that moment, I began to pursue my dream of being a scientist (biologist). When I finished high school, I began to build my way of studying my degree in Biology at the National University of Colombia. During this time, I was part of the research group GERPH, where I learned a lot about parasitology, molecular biology, and ecology.
Later, I was accepted as a master's student at the same University, where I completed and published my thesis entitled "Characterization of the Haemoproteus (Haemoproteus) columbae genome: as a tool for the evolutionary study of the Haemosporida order" under the direction of Dr. Matta. With this thesis, I obtained a laureate mention. After graduation, I decided to continue with my dream. Now I am a Ph.D. student in Biology at Temple University, under the direction of Dr. Escalante, working on comparative genomics and population genetics in Plasmodium spp.
More on me
I have found that all things have their positive and negative sides throughout my life, so I have always tried to explore all kinds of things. For example, my musical tastes range from death-gore metal to Colombian folk music. Likewise, with sports, I am passionate about chess and soccer (my team is Millonarios FC). Also, I've always considered myself a voracious reader of philosophy, fantasy, and classic literature. However, my brain shuts down entirely when I've tried to explore genres such as self-improvement or pseudo-science.
Finally, I have been interested in tattoos for a few years now. I currently have 16 tattoos that represent my experiences, my beliefs, my tastes. In short, my body is now a book where I write my life.
