Profile
David Gonzalez is a 4th year graduate student in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). In order to help his family financially, David left high school as a sophomore and helped his father maintain a small landscape business. At the age of twenty-one David had his first of two children and inspired by his new family, David enrolled in classes at a local junior college (MiraCosta College), where he pursued a degree in religious studies. During his stay at MCC, he became fascinated with the subjects of chemistry and biology. After MCC, David pursued his bachelorette degree in biochemistry at California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM). Under the guidance and inspiration of Professor Jose Mendoza, David began to contemplate the idea of pursuing a graduate degree. While at CSUSM, David was elected into the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) Program. Additionally, David attended the UCSD Summer Training Academy for Research in the Sciences (STARS), performing research in Professor Simpson Joseph’s lab. The summer before entering graduate school, David was awarded the Competitive EDGE Summer Research Program and the UCSD Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) fellowship. David’s current research efforts, under the advisement of Professor Pieter Dorrestein and supported by NIH Hemoglobin and Blood Protein Chemistry training grant, aims to bridge the gap between the fields of bacterial pathogenesis and bioanalytical chemistry. In particular, David is investigating the notorious human pathogen methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by the use of traditional and novel mass spectrometry techniques. David holds a close collaboration with the Victor Nizet and Jack Dixon labs at UCSD.
