Andres Espindola Camacho

After receiving his BS, Dr. Espindola moved to Oklahoma State University where he received a MS. and Ph.D. degrees. During his graduate studies (2011-2013), he worked on next generation sequencing (NGS) metagenome data analysis of plant-pathogen interaction systems to rapidly detect eukaryotic plant pathogens. Dr. Espindola and other students designed a bioinformatic tool termed EDNA (E-probe Diagnostic Nucleic acid Analysis) that effectively detects plant pathogens in sequenced metagenomes.

Dr. Espindola's Ph.D. research (2013-2016) focused on the refinement of EDNA (termed EDNAtran) to detect actively infecting plant pathogens using transcriptomics and metatranscriptomic databases. Additional EDNAtran refinements included the detection of active metabolic pathways in plant-pathogen interaction systems, specifically the detection of metabolic transcripts involved in the production of aflatoxin in toxigenic Aspergillus flavus strains in corn.

Currently, Dr. Espindola has joined the Institute for Biosecurity and Microbial Forensics as a postdoctoral researcher to work on further refinements of EDNA which will ultimately add new statistical and bioinformatic approaches to make EDNA effectively available to the research, regulatory and law enforcement

Research Interests:

Plant pathology, diagnostics, real-time PCR, High-throughput sequencing for pathogen detection, whole-genome sequencing, metagenome sequencing, meta-barcode sequencing, development of genetic probe markers, bioinformatics of fungal and viral plant pathogens, soil microbiome and soil metatranscriptome. My research focuses on the use of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and its applications in pathogen diagnostics. HTS is compared with the gold standard pathogen detection techniques like PCR or immunoassays. I also work on plant phenotype inference from microbiome.

In our research we aim to develop applied research to overcome the slow diagnosis challenge, enabling diagnosticians and plant and animal pathologists worldwide to simultaneously identify various pathogens in a more affordable, user-friendly and efficient way. E-probe Diagnostic Nucleic Acid Analysis (EDNA) is a cyberinformatic gateway that concatenates a series of bioinformatics and analytical tools for diagnostic assay developers and clinical diagnostician users. Currently, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been developed, and a new name has been adopted, Microbe Finder (MiFi®).