Max Garcia is a Biochemistry major who has been part of SUNY Old Westbury for 4 years after graduating from Nassau Community College with an A.S. in Biology.  During his time at NCC Max learned the operations and soft tissue preparation protocols used in Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy.  While attending classes at Old Westbury Max had opportunities to participate in a number of programs giving him a variety of lab experience and research presentations to build his portfolio.  In the MARC program in a Microbiology lab he screened DNA samples derived from non-intensive care unit patients from the New York Hospital in Flushing, Queens.  These samples were tested by PCR and Electrophoresis for specific types of anti-biotic resistances to form statistical data on their prevalence.  Through this program Max was able to participate in the RISE program operated out of Rutgers University in New Jersey.  While in RISE Max was given a project involving the detection of morphological changes in mature astrocytes derived from the cortex of a rat’s brain to determine if in vitro co-culturing of these cells with neuronal precursors would cause the astrocytes to express Brain Lipid Binding Protein a protein normally expressed by radial glial cells during embryonic development.  Detection of BLBP was possible by fluorescent immunostaining.  This project won Max awards in undergraduate poster presentations at SUNY Farmingdale and Stonybrook Universities.  After Max’s time in MARC he participated in MHIRT for a summer internship which took him abroad to sunny Spain in the Institute of Industrial Fermentation, Madrid.  At this facility Max studied a relatively new strain of C.jejuni which is responsible for many food related illnesses in recent years as well as immersing himself in a new culture.  Max is currently working in two labs at Old Westbury. In one lab he is maintaining stock cultures of C.elegans, and while in the other assisting another professor in calibration of a hydroxyl-radical flowmeter.  Max also spends time tutoring students in General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Structure of Physics through the CSTEP program.