Josue Flores-Kim

Background: I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where I obtained my undergraduate degree in Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez campus. I took a year off before moving to New York City to do my Ph.D. in molecular microbiology at NYU School of Medicine under the guidance of Dr. Andrew J. Darwin. My thesis focused on understanding how signal transduction is achieved in the Phage-shock-protein (Psp) system of Yersinia enterocolitica, an extracytoplasmic stress response that is essential for the virulence of several bacteria.

My current work: I joined Tom Bernhardt and David Rudner’s laboratories in January 2016. The general goal of my research is to study cell wall biosynthesis pathways in the human opportunistic respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae.