Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge that completion of this degree could not have been accomplished without the intentional, steady and joyful support of so many people through these years. I would like to take this short moment to acknowledge and thank them for their contributions. My advisor Vitaly Polunovsky has been an important player in my development as a scientist. He gave me freedom to choose either a project that followed the theme that our lab works on or follow this new project that was outside our lab’s expertise but would train me as a great scientist. Thanks for letting me take this risk that now we know has been a success. Finally, he represents a role model for me; still at his age he continues showing passion for doing research and his experiences in life are experiences that have given me a lesson for my future career as a scientist. My co-advisor Peter Bitterman has been the other key player in my development as a scientist. As my previous colleague Yong Kim said: “Peter has the ability to cut away the irrelevant and assess the core essentials of any process… ” His logical, focused mind gave me the elements necessary to put together this story that was not easy since th