Sara Cifuentes

Dr. Cifuentes will spend her fellowship year at Institute of Microbiology, Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador under the mentorship of Paúl A. Cárdenas MD, DIC, PhD, and Jay Graham, PhD, MBA, MPH. Her research will focus on evaluating the temporal shifts of pathogenic bacteria, mobile genetic elements, and the public health risk of resistance determinants in children's gut microbiota in peri-urban communities of Quito, Ecuador.

Dr. Cifuentes is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. She plans to lead research on antimicrobial resistance and infectious diseases using a metagenomic approach and to contribute to community health and development in Ecuador. During her training as a medical doctor and microbiologist, she had the opportunity to observe populations with poor access to safe water. This experience shaped her interest in developing solutions from a one-health and global health perspective to prevent infectious diseases and the spread of antimicrobial resistance.