Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
Porras TMI Lab
Led by Ana Maria Porras · Biomedical Engineering
What we study
The Porras TMI Lab studies how microbes reshape human tissues, using microscopy, bioinformatics, and molecular biology to model disease processes. They create in vitro and in vivo models to understand human-microbe interactions in health and disease.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Cells in a dish
- Bacteria & microbes
- Coding helps
- Project
- 1
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Exploring the Effects of Environmental Variables on the Growth of Opportunistic Bacteroides Members
The lab studies how pH changes affect growth and enzyme activity of Bacteroides fragilis, a gut bacterium that can break down intestinal tissue. Students grow the bacteria at different pH levels, measure growth curves, and test how much elastin the bacteria can degrade.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 287
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Heart valves enter their organoid era
2026 · Cell stem cell
- Limosilactobacillus fermentum K73 synbiotic modulates gut microbiota function and behavior in gnotobiotic mice transplanted with microbiota from children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder
2026 · Journal of Functional Foods
Shows how a gut bacteria supplement affects behavior in mice with autism-like gut bacteria.
Show 3 more papersShow fewer
- Global innovation requires global participation: Overcoming geographic gaps in biomaterials research
2026 · Device
- Developing a protocol to counteract spontaneous in vitro activation of intestinal fibroblasts using design of experiments
2026 · npj Biomedical Innovations.
Builds a lab method to stop gut cells from turning into scar tissue.
- Comparative Genomic and Functional Profiling of ECM-Associated Enzymes in Bacteroides, a Key Genus of the Human Gut Microbiome
2026 · Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering
Compares how gut bacteria break down tissue in different species.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Ana Maria Porras hasn't set up this page yet. You can also look them up in the UF directory (search “Ana Maria Porras”).