Four students represented California State University, Bakersfield at the annual CSUBIOTECH Symposium last month, presenting their research on topics like microbes, fungi and carrots.
The January 24 symposium brought together students and faculty members from across the CSU system, with one event held at CSU Los Angeles for southern California campuses and another held in Sacramento for northern campuses. At either location, students had the opportunity to share their research in the realm of biotechnology, learn about their peers’ work and attend workshops and talks.
“This symposium is particularly interesting for students because it provides a positive environment for first time presenters,” said Dr. Isolde Francis, an associate professor in CSUB’s Biology Department. “The audience contains lots of faculty from the different campuses, and they do a really good job to go talk to as many students as possible to not only give feedback to the presenting students but to also actually learn from them.”
Dr. Francis attended the symposium with two of her graduate students, Donald Hudson and Francisco Ortega. Her lab collaborates regularly with Chemistry Professor Dr. Danielle Solano, whose students Jazmin Rodriguez and Jonathan Valencia also attended the symposium.
“I encouraged both students to apply to and attend the CSUBIOTECH Symposium because presenting research to a professional audience is a critical skill for students who intend to attend graduate school or pursue research-focused careers,” Dr. Solano said. “My hope was that they gained experience and confidence in communicating their work and received constructive feedback on their research.”
With Dr. Francis as his mentor, Hudson’s research focuses on microbiology and plant-microbe interactions, studying how certain bacteria interact with plants and influence their growth and development. Specifically, he looks at how these plant-associated bacteria control their behavior through gene regulation, especially genes that affect movement.
“In simple terms, I study the ‘control switches’ inside these microbes to see how turning specific genes on or off changes what the bacteria do,” Hudson explained. “I hope to better understand how microbes interact with plants and how we might manage those interactions in beneficial ways. This kind of work matters because microbes play a major role in crop health and understanding them better can support improved agricultural practices and future biotechnology applications.”
Though it wasn’t Hudson’s first time presenting his research, he said it is always rewarding to share his work with people outside of his bubble and explain it in ways people can understand regardless of their scientific background.
For Ortega, part of sharing his research includes explaining that not all bacteria and fungi are bad. In his graduate research, he studies mycorrhizal fungi in local carrot fields, investigating the identities of the fungi to potentially use their benefits to improve carrot production.
“Finding the species of the fungi will be very helpful to conduct more research on how we can potentially boost them in the fields where they are already found and accustomed to climate conditions,” said Ortega. “If we can boost the fungi, then perhaps this may lead to benefits for the carrots grown in these fields as studies have found mycorrhizal fungi to benefit plants in a variety of ways.”
With previous presenting experience, Ortega wished he could say he wasn’t nervous to share his work at the symposium. Though he isn’t a fan of public speaking, he takes these events as opportunities to grow as a biologist, boosting the skills he will need to communicate his work to others.
“I tend to feel anxious up until the time to present my research, but once I get going, the time just seems to fly because I get excited whenever anyone comes up and asks me to walk them through my work,” he said.
Rodriguez and Valencia, Dr. Solano’s chemistry students, have worked closely with Dr. Francis’ lab on a project on a new bacterium belonging to the Streptomyces genus. While the biology lab discovered this bacterium, which makes an as-of-yet unknown antifungal substance, the chemistry students have been trying to identify the substance, Valencia explained.
“Our collaborators initially observed that the newly isolated Streptomyces sp. GM18-153 was inhibiting the growth of the fungal plant pathogen Sclerotium rolfsii in their lab,” said Rodriguez, who graduated from CSUB with her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry last fall. “Sclerotium rolfsii causes Southern Blight disease, leading to crop destruction and economic loss yearly in Southern California. What was observed in the lab initiated the effort to isolate, purify and identify the active compounds produced by GM18-153 that could be causing the inhibitory effect.”
Both Rodriguez and Valencia found the CSU Biotechnology symposium a comfortable space to share their research.
“I really appreciate how much the organizers tried to foster a welcoming environment and how they had lots of different opportunities for learning with the different speakers, sections and talks they had available,” said Valencia, a biochemistry major.
While the student researchers have spent plenty of time diving into their own research, the symposium gave them the opportunity to learn about other topics within biotechnology.
“One big takeaway from the symposium was seeing how diverse the projects were,” Hudson said. “Although we were all in the realm of biotechnology, the projects ranged from robotic arms to the microbiome of deep-sea octopuses and everything in between. Also inspiring were the talks given by former CSU students who have now progressed their careers in amazing ways, going deeper into the biotechnology field.”
Ortega, who is on track to graduate with his master’s degree this semester, said his time at CSUB has been rewarding, thanks in part to opportunities like this symposium.
“I have grown as a biologist because I have been provided with many opportunities … to develop my professional skills and further my education,” he said. “I have learned that there is always more work to be done as a researcher and that one project can lead to many more projects because there is still much that is unknown in this world.”
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