Robert J Bastidas

About Robert J Bastidas

I am a Latino scientist with a multicultural background, born and raised in Colombia, England, and Honduras. I earned my degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where I conducted research on genes governing flower development in Arabidopsis thaliana under Dr. Jack Okamuro and Dr. Diane Jofuku.After graduating, I worked for four years at Ceres-Inc, an Ag-functional genomics company, focusing on chromatin regulators controlling seed development in key agricultural crops. I then pursued a PhD at Duke University in the Genetics and Genomics program, where I collaborated with Dr. Joe Heitman to identify novel signaling pathways that regulate virulence factors in the fungal pathogens Candida albicans and Mucor circinelloides.For my postdoctoral training, I joined Dr. Raphael Valdivia’s lab at Duke, where I developed genetic and bioinformatic pipelines, including Next Generation Sequencing workflows, to create a defined collection of over Chlamydia mutants. This collection enabled the identification of several Chlamydia-secreted effectors that manipulate human cellular pathways during infection.I currently am an Assistant Research Professor at Duke’s Department of Integrative Immunobiology. As a bench scientist and principal investigator, I mentor postdoctoral fellows, research staff, and undergraduate students. My research group focuses on Chlamydia secreted effectors and we are currently working with Chlamydia deubiquitinases and their roles in protecting Chlamydia from innate immune defenses. In our work, we routinely use high-throughput microscopy, multi-omics, genetics, as well as cell biology and molecular biology approaches in both cell-based (cell lines, primary cells, and organoids) and murine models of infection.In addition to my research, I am an Associate Editor and an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). I co-lead Duke’s postbaccalaureate program PRIME-PREP, which prepares junior scientists from disadvantaged backgrounds for competitive PhD and MD/PhD programs. I am also actively involved in DEI committees, participate in DEI workshops, and represent Duke at national conferences for minoritized scientists such as SACNAS and ABRCMS. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family, cooking, and cheering for Liverpool Football Club and the Colombian national Football teams (Men and Women).

Experience

1. Co Director

   Duke Prime Prep

   Jun 2024 — Present · Durham, NC, US

Education

• University of California, Santa Cruz

  Bachelor's Degree, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

  1994 — 1998

• Duke University

  Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Genetics and Genomics

  2003 — 2009