Introduction

👋 Hello! I’m Quentin Andres 👨‍💻, a second-year PhD candidate in Fisheries Science and Technology at Kasetsart University.

👉 My research focuses on the intersection of aquatic animal health, molecular biology, and genomics. Specifically, I aim to develop sustainable and low-cost vaccines 💉 for aquaculture, with a current focus on Streptococcus iniae 🦠 affecting Asian seabass 🐟. The methodologies I employ have potential applicability to a wider range of aquatic vertebrates and bacterial pathogens.

🎓 Educational Background

• Doctoral Program: Fisheries Science and Technology, Kasetsart University (Ongoing)
• MSc: Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management, Asian Institute of Technology
• BSc: Life Sciences with a major in Molecular and Genetic Biology (BMG), University Côte d’Azur
• Baccalauréat: Major in Life Sciences and Physics, Lycée Jacques Audiberti

🔬 Research Focus

1. Development of Recombinant and Plasmid DNA Vaccines for Streptococcus iniae
2. Utilization of Quality by Design (QbD) to Streamline Aquaculture Vaccine Manufacturing
3. Multifaceted Approaches in Bacterial Epidemiology, Pan-genomics, and Reverse Vaccinology

📚 Current Research

My thesis is organized into multiple facets, including:

• 🧬 Low-cost vaccine manufacturing for aquaculture (recombinant platform)
• 🧬 Low-cost vaccine manufacturing for aquaculture (pDNA platform)
• 💻 Comparative genomics of Streptococcus iniae
• 🧪 Reverse vaccinology coupled with bacterial pan-genomics
• 🌡 Vaccine design, purification, and efficacy evaluation

🔎 The initial phase of my research was conducted under the Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Health Management and the Center of Excellence in Aquatic Animal Health Management, both housed within the Faculty of Fisheries at Kasetsart University.

📝 My first research article,“Comparative Genomics and Reverse Vaccinology of Streptococcus iniae: Blueprints for Affordable Aquaculture Vaccines,” introduces a novel framework for more affordable vaccines by integrating epidemiology, pan-genomics, and reverse vaccinology, coupled with Quality By Design (QbD) principles and will soon be published..

🎯 Research and Academic Interests

• Aquatic Animal Health
• Bacterial and Microbial Genomics
• Sustainable Vaccine Development
• Bioinformatics and Data Science
• Green Bioprocessing Technologies

🤝 Let’s connect

• 📩 Email me for collaborations or discussions.
• 🌐 Find me on LinkedIn
• 💻 Check out my GitHub page.

I’m committed to advancing the fields of aquaculture genomics and aquatic health management with focus on Asian aquaculture 🌏🎣.

📝 Recent Student Research and Practical Experiences

Whole Genome Assembly

• New Generation Sequencing: Performed whole genome assembly of Streptococcus iniae isolates from diseased-farmed Asian seabass fish.
• Technologies: Illumina PE short-reads and long sequencing reads (PacBio or Nanopore).
• Methodologies: Single reference mapping, de-novo assembly, reference-guided de-novo assembly, multiple reference mapping directly onto pangenome graphs.
• Submissions to public health databases: Submitted my results to NCBI under the bioproject number PRJNA933632 (Currently private, five Biosamples with short sequencing reads and GenBank assemblies will soon be released..).

Aquatic Animal Vaccines

• Inactivated vaccines: Developed and evaluted oral-oil-encapsulated and immersion monovalent and bivalent vaccines for Streptococcus agalactiae and Aeromonas veronii for Nile tilapia. Found that for those formulations specifically, immersion was more effective in conferring protective efficacy for a few months and that oral vaccines were more appropriate to be given as a booster after primer vaccination.

• mRNA vaccines: Explored mRNA vaccine design and manufacturing against TiLV for Nile tilapia (Project stalled)

📝 Older Student Research and Practical Experiences

Production of Biomolecules

• Research Objectives: Compared eukaryotic and prokaryotic vectors for recombinant GFP and B-galactosidase expression.
• Cellular Models: HEK 293 immortalized cells vs Escherichia coli K-12 strain with T7RNAP+ capabilities).
• Specific Activity, Qualitative and Quantitative Measurements: Employed fluorescence microscopy and plate reader for fluorescence measurements, BSA for protein quantification, SDS-PAGE for protein quality, and indirect enzymatic assays using HRP for color development.

Cellular Signaling and Apoptosis

• Research Objective: Explored apoptosis mechanisms and cellular signaling pathways, as part of a team.
• Cellular Models: Utilized the Drosophila S2R+ cell line.
• Cell Growth & Survival: Monitored using cell counting to ensure adaptability to laboratory conditions.
• Transfection Efficacy: Evaluated using Effectene transfection reagent on S2R+ cells, incorporating both an empty vector and a GFP-containing expression vector.
• Induction of Apoptosis and Necrosis: Facilitated by the addition of staurosporine to the cell culture medium; optimized the concentration range for apoptosis induction.
• Imaging Techniques: Utilized confocal microscopy with propidium iodide tagging in S2R+ cells to study apoptosis signaling pathways-mitochondrial pathway post-staurosporine treatment.

Cardiovascular physiology

• Research Objective: Investigated the regulatory mechanisms of blood vessel diameter, as part of a team.
• Model Used: Isolated ring of aorta from a rat.
• Agents Administered: KCl, verapamil, Isoprotérénol, phenylephrine, various concentrations of NA (noradrénaline), and prazosin.
• Key Insights: Recorded variations in vessel diameter in response to administration of agents affecting calcium ion channels and hormonal activity.

Plant Biology

• plant physiology: Worked on stomatal opening in plants and the role of Abscisic Acid (ABA) and Gibbrellic acid (GA).

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

• Venom Gland mRNA Discovery: Computational approach in discovering and analyzing a new mRNA in the venom gland of the endoparasitoid insect Aphidius colemani, as part of a team.
• Homology Hypothesis: Utilization of bioinformatics tools for sequence alignment and homology search.
• ORF Analysis: Use of EMBOSS tools to search for possible Open Reading Frames.
• Functional Analysis: Database use for developing functional hypotheses for proteins.
• Motif and Domain Identification: Employed ScanProsite and InterProScan for motif and domain identification.

🛠 Methodologies and Tools

👨‍💻 Programming Languages

• Proficient in data manipulation, analytics, github for control version, and bioinformatics scripting using Bash, R, and Python. Some experience in Perl.

  Experience Levels  
   🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 R  
   🟩🟩🟩🟩🟨 Bash-command line   
   🟩🟩🟩🟨🟨 Python  
   🟩🟩🟨🟨🟨 Perl 

🐧 Operating System

• Mostly using Linux for applied bioinformatics, development and data analysis.

🔬 Molecular Techniques and Microbiology

• Molecular Biology Skilled in various cloning techniques such as bacterial transformation, IVA Cloning, and Golden Gate Assembly. Experienced in DNA Gel-Electrophoresis for molecular separation.
• Proteomics: Western Blotting (WB), SDS-PAGE, Non-reducing Capillary Gel Electrophoresis (CGE)
• Bioprocessing: Protein purification, chromatogrpahy

🧪 Fundamental Lab Skills

• Animal: Eukaryotic cell culture and viability assays (MTT) and trypan blue assay, transfections in HEK 293 and other cells.

📊 Analytics

• Immunology: Expertise in Real-Time Quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and its variations. Limited experience with Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) and cytotoxic activity tests (cytotoxic activity of T cells and Natural Killer cells measured by chromium release assay (CRA)).

🐁/🐟 In-vivo Studies

• Basic toxicology: Histopathology, basics of animal physiology. Familiarity with aquatic animals mucosal and systemic immune responses.
• Basic immunology and analytics: Experience in blood count, serum preparation, and survival challenges for immunological assays and screenings in fish.
• Functional Renal Exploration: Experience with rat models to study renal functions. Techniques involved: jugular and carotid cannulation. Used various substances including inuline, mannitol, and furosemide.

📜 Regulatory and Pharmaceutical Development

• Quality by Design (QbD): Employ QbD methodologies in the development and optimization of recombinant vaccines.
• Regulatory: Familiar with guidance frameworks and regulations in particular:
  • ICH’s Q8
  • ICH’s Q9
  • ICH’s Q10
  • ICH’s Q11
  • FDA’s Process Validation (PV) Documents
  • EU Variation Regulation 1234/2008
  • Regulation (EU) 2019/5
  • Regulation (EU) 2019/6
  • EMA Q&A Document EMA/CHMP/CVMP/QWP/586330/2010

🎯 I am focused on advancing the fields of aquaculture genomics and aquatic health management.

Download My Résumé. (coming soon..)

👉 Feel free to 📩 email me for collaborations or discussions.

You can also find me on 🤝 LinkedIn, 💻 Github and check out some of my publications in my 🌐 academic page below.

The following facet presents the different skills that I master or very familiar with: