2000 to present, Member of the American Society for Microbiology
2002 to present, Member of the American Fisheries Society
2002 to present, Member of the Alabama Fisheries Association
2003 to present, Member of the World Aquaculture Society

2004, Recipient of a New Faculty Scholar Award given by the Biggio Center (Auburn University)
2000-2001, Post-doctoral fellowship from the European NATO agency, €25,000.
1999, Extraordinary Doctorate Award from the University of Valencia, Spain, to the best Ph.D. thesis in Microbiology.

Catfish farmers continue to identify disease as the main problem for their industry. My research focuses on Microbial diagnosis of bacterial catfish pathogens: detection and molecular epidemiology Identification and characterization of genes associated with virulence in catfish pathogens. Analysis of microbial communities in aquaculture setting.
A second area of research is related to food safety in oysters.

We are currently working on:

1. Vibrio vulnificus coldshock response under refrigeration conditions
2. Evaluating the efficiency of postharvest treatments in oysters

Title	Journal	Year
Molecules infer origins of ectoparasite infrapopulations on tuna	Parasitology International	2011
Cloning, Expression, and Immunogenicity of Flavobacterium columnare Heat Shock Protein DnaJ	Journal of Aquatic Animal Health	2010
In vivo gene expression of cold shock and other stress-related genes in Vibrio vulnificus during shellstock temperature control conditions in oysters	Journal of Applied Microbiology	2009
Bacterial loads and microbial composition in high pressure treated oysters during storage	International Journal of Food Microbiology	2009
Use of Modified Live Vaccines in Aquaculture	Journal of the World Aquaculture Society	2009
Flavobacterium columnare genomovar influences mortality in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)	Veterinary Microbiology	2008
Gene Expression of Cold Shock and Other Stress-Related Genes in Vibrio vulnificus Grown in Pure Culture under Shellstock Temperature Control Conditions	Journal of Food Protection	2008
Use of suppressive subtractive hybridization to identify Flavobacterium columnare DNA sequences not shared with Flavobacterium johnsoniae	Letters in Applied Microbiology	2008
Molecular typing of Streptococcus agalactiae isolates from fish	Journal of Fish Disease	2008
First Report of Yersinia ruckeri Biotype 2 in the USA	Journal of Aquatic Animal Health	2007
Generation and analysis of expressed sequence tags from the ciliate protozoan parasite Ichthyophthirius multifiliis	BMC Genomics	2007
Molecular typing of isolates of the	Federation of European Microbiological Societies Letters	2007
Identification and characterization of an intervening sequence within the 23S ribosomal RNA genes of Edwardsiella ictaluri	Systematic and Applied Microbiology	2007
Host-specific association between Flavobacterium columnare genomovars and fish species	Systematic and Applied Microbiology	2007
Combined use of 16S ribosomal DNA and automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis to study the bacterial community in catfish ponds	Letters in Applied Microbiology	2006
Intra- and interspecific phenotypic characteristics of fish-pathogenic Edwardsiella ictaluri and E. tarda	Aquacultural Research	2006
Comparison of lipopolysaccharide and protein profiles between Flavobacterium columnare strains from different genomovars	Journal of Fish Diseases	2006
Technique for Identifying Flavobacterium columnare Using Whole-Cell Fatty Acid Profiles	Journal of Aquatic Animal Health	2005
Isolation and characterization of strains of Flavobacterium columnare from Brazil	Journal of Fish Diseases	2005
Protoplast transformation and regeneration of transgenic Valencia sweet orange plants containing a juice quality-related pectin methylesterase gene	Plant Cell Reproduction	2005
Transmission and detection of Flavobacterium columnare in channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus	Diseases of Aquatic Organisms	2005
Genetic fingerprinting of Flavobacterium columnare isolates from cultured fish	Journal of Applied Microbiology	2004
Isolation of Edwardsiella ictaluri from Tadpole Madtom in a Southwestern New Jersey River	Journal of Aquatic Animal Health	2003
A comparative study of Edwardsiella ictaluri parent (EILO) and E. ictaluri rifampicin-mutant (RE-33) isolates using lipopolysaccharides, outer membrane proteins, fatty acids, Biolog, API 20E and genomic analyses	Journal of Fish Diseases	2003
Coronatine and Abscission Citrus	Journal of the American Society for Horticulture Science	2003
Yeast Species Associated with Orange Juice: Evaluation of Different Identification Methods	Applied and Environmental Microbiology	2002
A Pectinmethylesterase Gene Associated with a Heat-Stable Extract from Citrus	Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry	2002
Identification of Vibrio spp. (other than 11. vulnificus) recovered on CPC agar from marine natural samples	International Microbiology	2000
Low incidence of Vibrio vulnificus among Vibrio isolates from seas water and shellfish of the western Mediterranean coast	Journal of Applied Microbiology	1999
In situ analysis of the bacterial communities associated to farmed eel by whole-cell hybridization	Letters in Applied Microbiology	1999
Genetic Relatedness among Environmental, Clinical, and Diseased-Eel Vibrio vulnificus Isolates from Different Geographic Regions by Ribotyping and Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA PCR	Applied and Environmental Microbiology	1998
A Comparison of Strategies for the Detection and Recovery of Vibrio vulnificus from Marine Samples of the Western Mediterranean coast	Systematic and Applied Microbiology	1998
Intraspecific Differentiation of Vibrio vulnificus Biotypes by Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism and Ribotyping	Applied and Environmental Microbiology	1997
A Polyphasic Approach to Study the Intraspecific Diversity Amongst Vibrio vulnificus Isolates	Systematic and Applied Microbiology	1997
Nested PCR Method for Rapid and Sensitive Detection of Vibrio vulnificus in Fish, Sediments, and Water	Applied and Environmental Microbiology	1995

35 Records Total