My main research interest focuses on studying gene regulation during development, understanding how the genetic program regulates the specification and functions of different organ systems, and how the molecular phenotypes connect with the cell's physiological function. My area of expertise is in developmental biology; however, I use techniques applied in other fields such as genetics, molecular biology, genomics, comparative genomics, bioinformatics, cell biology, confocal microscopy, microbiology, and aquaculture. I have vast experience working with the zebrafish (Danio rerio) and the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) models to study development, neurodevelopment and transgenesis systems (see Juarez-Morales et al., 2017). My current work focuses on identifying genes that participate in the immune and metabolic response in commercial fish after pathogen infection, employing RNAseq and genomic and molecular analyses (see Velázquez-Lizárraga et al., 2019).