The Plant Biotechnology group lead by Frank Solano has been involved in the implementation of plant tissue culture and plant molecular characterization and DNA barcoding.
The group has provided contributions to the molecular-based analysis of the Vanilla diversity in Costa Rica, via molecular markers and DNA sequencing. It has additionally contributed to molecular identification of other organisms such as fungi, nematodes and bacteria. Recently, the group is interested in the implementation of metagenomic analysis of changes in the microbial communities in soils due to anthropogenic impacts, the expression of recombinant proteins in E. coli and the use of synthetic biology for metabolic engineering of yeast. We have established both Costa Rican and international collaborations.