Dr. San Martín is interested in the development of optogenetic tools for real-time metabolic monitoring and control in living cells. The objective is to understand the dynamics and control mechanisms of metabolic fluxes with high spatial and temporal resolution in intact mammalian systems.

Dr. Alejandro San Martín is a Medical Technologist and Doctor of Science from the Universidad Austral de Chile. His doctoral thesis was carried out at the Center for Scientific Studies (CECs), where he developed the first genetically encoded nanosensors for lactate and pyruvate, distributed for academic purposes to more than 1000 laboratories around the world and patented in G7 countries. Dr. San Martín has completed research internships at Stanford University, Carnegie Institution for Science, and Muster University. He has been awarded by the MIT technology review and has been an ANID fellow and principal investigator of FONDECYT and CORFO projects.

In the area of undergraduate teaching, Dr. San Martín has dedicated himself to the courses of physiopathology and molecular diagnosis in the clinical laboratory, in the Facultad de Ciencias para el Cuidado de la Salud and the Facultad de Medicina y Ciencia, respectively. At the postgraduate level, his teaching focuses mainly on the development of optogenetic tools for the study of energy metabolism and the investigation of mechanisms associated with metabolic regulation in living systems