DR. ANA MARIA PORRAS
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER
IF/THEN Series
Dr. Porras studies the microbes that live inside our bodies and our guts (intestines). She wants to know if microbes are different in people who live in different parts of the world. This lets her collaborate with scientists all around the globe!
Dr. Porras also wants to know how our gut microbes help protect us from other harmful microbes that might be in our food.
Dr. Porras has expertise not only in biology - but engineering as well. She is currently developing and designing, or engineering, ways to study gut bacteria outside of the human body. She creates materials that have many of the components found in the human body that the gut bacteria can grow on.
Dr. Porras says “I LOVE to crochet microbes and I use them to teach people about them on #MicrobeMondays on Instagram.” Sometimes when crocheting a new microbe she will get an idea for a new experiment!
Educational Pathway: Dr. Porras studied biomedical engineering in college and graduate school. She learned about microbes during her postdoctoral research. A “postdoc” is a research job many people do after getting PhDs.
Name Pronunciation: Hear the correct pronunciation of Dr. Porras’ name in her IF/THEN Ambassador videos.
Further resources:
(some links may repeat from above)
Read: How Do You Tell Colombian Kids A Science Yarn? With Crochet! from Forbes.
Dr. Porras’ profile at J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering
Follow her on Twitter: @AnaMaPorras
Follow her on Instagram: @AnaMaPorras
Síguela en Instagram: @anaerobias