Ciencia Puerto Rico

I was born in the tiny Caribbean island of Puerto Rico during the waning days of the Generation X, to a microbiologist and a registered nurse. Naturally, coming from a scientific family, I decided to "save" the world by becoming a scientist. I earned a BS in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus, where I was an active member of the Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Associations and of the Golden Key Honor Society. I graduated Magna Cum Laude, with extensive research and teaching experience, of which the Department of Energy Undergraduate Research Fellowship Award I received during my third year was of special significance. I spent a whole semester working under the guidance of Dr. Johnway Gao at the Pacific Northwest National Lab, where I learned a lot about applied and basic research. He also enticed me into applying to Cornell University where, a few years later, I was accepted in the BMCB Graduate Program, joining the laboratory of Dr. Anthony Bretscher. There I worked on the regulation of membrane trafficking using budding yeast as a model system. During that time I was heavily involved in recruitment activities for the department and the graduate school, visiting Puerto Rico several times, and actively participating in the SACNAS's graduate booth 3 times. About that same time I joined CienciaPR. I completed the PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and moved on into the host-pathogen interactions field, joining the lab of Dr. Tamara Doering at Washington University School of Medicine, studying the interactions between a pathogenic fungus and its human host. In the Fall of 2018, I was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, where I keep studying the cell biology of the fungal infections caused by Cryptococcus and Candida, two of the most common fungal pathogens.