My name is Commodore St. Germain and I strongly believe that Solano College is a great place for the community. Solano College was the launchpad that allowed me to participate and contribute to the highest levels of science and it is located here in our own Solano County. You can click on links below for scientific articles that I worked on. This is something I would have never thought possible and I really didn’t even know how science worked but Solano College helped me achieve all these things. I am a Native Hawaiian, Filipino, French, Chinese, Irish, and Spanish – first generation college graduate.
- Batt AR, St Germain CP, Gokey T, Guliaev AB, Baird T Jr. Engineering trypsin for inhibitor resistance. Protein Sci. 2015 Sep;24(9):1463-74. doi: 10.1002/pro.2732. Epub 2015 Jul 7. PMID: 26106067; PMCID: PMC4570540.
- St Germain C, Zhao H, Barlow JH. Transcription-Replication Collisions-A Series of Unfortunate Events. Biomolecules. 2021 Aug 21;11(8):1249. doi: 10.3390/biom11081249. PMID: 34439915; PMCID: PMC8391903.
- St Germain CP, Zhao H, Sinha V, Sanz LA, Chédin F, Barlow JH. Genomic patterns of transcription-replication interactions in mouse primary B cells. Nucleic Acids Res. 2022 Feb 28;50(4):2051-2073. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkac035. PMID: 35100392; PMCID: PMC8887484.
I arrived in Fairfield when I was 12 and where I attended Oakbrook Elementary, Green Valley Middle School, Armijo High School, and New Tech in Napa. I moved around the bay area a little and went to Napa Valley College, Solano College, and Chabot College. I took a 12 year break from school and worked jobs like sales, construction, water treatment, food service, bartending, zoo keeper, day care, retail, watch repair, etc. When I was 31 I made my return to school starting at Solano College. In 2011 I took chemistry again and physics and did great! Solano College prepared me for my transfer to SF State where I joined a research lab and contributed to my first published science article. I graduated with a biochemistry BS/chemistry BA, as the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry co-valedictorian, and the Hood Recipient (undergraduate of the year) for the entire College of Science and Engineering for 2014. All of this was possible because of Solano College! I was in at UC Davis from 2014-2020 in my PhD program in biochemistry, molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. At UC Davis I was an IMSD, T32, and F31 NIH fellow and published two additional science articles and collaborated with the best scientists in the entire world. I started teaching part time in 2019 at Solano College to try it out and I really enjoyed everything about it. I continued teaching at Solano College and other bay area colleges after my PhD and was lucky enough to start teaching at Solano College as a full time professor in the Fall of 2022.
I have a lot of history with Solano College and it started all the way back when I was 12 where my friends and I used to swim in the rec pool in the summer. I took a basketball class there while in high school to fulfill some missing PE credits. I took a chemistry class in 2001 and dropped it. I did some enrichment activities shortly after high school like judo, fencing, swimming, and dance. I participated in the Solano College 2001 dance production “Let the World Dance” where I performed on stage with all the other dancers. Up until then I never thought I would do anything like that but it was fun and Solano College provided the opportunity. In 2004 I worked with the Solano College facilities department as a contractor working on the heating and cooling systems. I did a lot of other miscellaneous things at Solano College over the years such as playing basketball and indoor soccer in the gym, run in the Turkey Trot, and watch my friends perform in the Solano College theater productions. My return to classes at Solano College in 2011 gave me the tools to be successful in next stage of my education and life. I want to let students know how great Solano College is and that it can be the beginning of their journey to where ever it is they want to go in the world.
Curriculum Vitae (updated 2022-Jul-27)