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Email

piedra@bcm.edu

Positions

Assistant Professor (Molecular Virology & Microbiology)

Molecular Virology & Microbiology
ÌÇÐÄÊÓƵ of Medicine
Houston, TX, US
PI of RestoreLAB focused on developing microbial biotech and processes for conversion of plastic waste to biomass for life-centric and green technological applications.

Addresses

BCM-Jesse H. Jones Hall (Lab)

Room: BCMJ-243E
Houston, TX, 77030
United States

Education

PhD from UT Southwestern

01/2015 - Dallas, Texas, United States

Molecular biophysics

BS from Texas A&M University

12/2008 - College Station

Cell and Molecular Biology

Professional Interests

• bioremediation
• biophysics
• biosemiotics
• eco-microbiology

Websites

Videos

Selected Publications

• " AEM. 2025 ;
• " bioRxiv. 2025 ;

Projects

Accelerating PET plastic biodegradation for rapid conversion to biomass

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pollution, although enormous, is a microcosm of total plastic pollution. It bears the same concerning hallmarks, mainly global environmental spread and presence of MNPs within organisms. It is however much more tractable, as the problem concerns a single type of polymer. Nonetheless, the solutions generated to effectively deal with PET pollution will inspire those needed for the larger, more general, and complex problem of total plastic pollution. We study Piscinibacter sakaiensis (P. sakai), a versatile bacterium that evolved to slowly but completely consume PET, with the goal of getting it to consume PET faster. Ultimately, we hope to develop a simple process for the rapid fermentation of PET waste to microbial biomass for use in a variety of ecocentric and green technological applications.

Languages

Spanish