Dr. Leonor Garcia-Bayona is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Professor Laurie Comstock at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She grew up in Bogota, Colombia, and completed her Chemical Engineering and Microbiology undergraduate studies at the University of the Andes in Colombia. Her doctoral work was performed under the supervision of Professor Michael Laub at MIT, where she acquired a strong background in bacterial genetics, physiology, genomics, and interbacterial antagonism. During this time, she discovered and characterized a new type of contact-dependent interbacterial toxin produced by Caulobacter crescentus. Her current research focuses on one of the most abundant genera of human gut symbionts, the Bacteroides. During her early postdoctoral work, Dr. Garcia-Bayona created genetic tools to facilitate molecular work in these bacteria and allow visualization of dynamic cellular processes. She is now using these tools, in combination with genomic analyses, to dissect how Bacteroides balance antagonism and cooperation in healthy gut consortia. Dr. Garcia-Bayona is also an enthusiast of diversity and inclusion in science, in particular through her work as a strategic partnership coordinator for Cientifico Latino and its Graduate Student Mentorship Initiative. Dr. Garcia-Bayona will be applying for faculty positions in 2022.