Every semester we will be featuring a student member of the FHS. This will allow other students and professionals to "meet" these individuals and learn more about their interests and research projects.

The current featured FHS student is Esteban Soto (see below). To view an archive of previous Featured FHS Students, please follow this link.

Esteban Soto - Louisiana State University

My name is Esteban Soto, I’m a Phd student at the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at the LSU-School of Veterinary Medicine under the supervision of Dr. John Hawke and Dr. Ron Thune. As you can tell by my name, I’m not originally from Louisiana, but have been living in the South-Eastern USA for the past 4 years. I was born in Costa Rica, were I completed my veterinarian training in 2005 from the Veterinary Medicine School – National University (UNA). Throughout my last year in CR I worked in the Pathology Department with Dr. Juan A. Morales primarily in the diagnosis of fish diseases. My graduation project was based in the description of diseases of Tilapia Nilotica (Oreochromis niloticus) diagnosed in Costa Rica.

In the summer of 2005 I started a master degree program at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Mississippi State University. During the summer months I worked at the Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center and on the spring and fall months I work at the bacteriology laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Mark Lawrence, Dr. Michael Mauel, Dr. Alvin Camus, and Dr. Patricia Gaunt. My research involved phylogenetic classification of Flavobacterium columnare isolates by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and conducting comparative challenges to observe relationships between PFGE-subgroups and bacterial virulence in channel catfish fingerlings.

Following the completion of my master’s degree, I began a PhD program at LSU-SVM. My research includes identification and mutagenesis of virulence factors, implementation of diagnostic techniques (real-time PCR) and vaccine development for Francisella noatunensis. Recently I have focus my research studying the interaction of the tilapia immune system with this fish emergent pathogen. Upon completion of my Phd I will like to continue working in fish diseases diagnosis, treatment and prevention.