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Introduction

How many times have we helped another human being in their moment of need, and sickness, provided them with support and assisted them in any way we could? As a little girl, playing doctor with my sisters and friends, a career in medicine began to interest me. I would pretend to be a doctor, curing them of all their illnesses. In particular, my younger sister whom at the time had been suffering from various eye conditions, like astigmatism, severe myopia, strabismus and retinopathy being only 2 months old. I would tell her that I would cure her, take out my pretend stethoscope, and in a blink of an eye cure her, or at least I would believe I did. During our childhood, I would notice that she felt out of place. When I would talk to her she would tell me that the kids at school were making fun of her. I would then tell her that she should not feel sad, that she was unique and different from everyone else and that made her special, which put a smile on her face.


Disease has been a recurring theme in my life. In addition to my sister, both my grandfather and father were diagnosed with diabetes at an early age, one of my grandmothers passed away due to cancer, and I myself am a hypoglycemic. Being constantly reminded about the effects of an illness leads me to explore and learn more about the progression, treatment, and new advances. I find myself asking: “Where do we get all of this information from? How do we learn about these illnesses and how do we find new cures?” I found a lot of my answers once I started working in a biology research lab.

Ponce School of Medicine & Health Sciences's Impact

Not only has my research experience taught me many valuable lessons but my work as a volunteer has also enlightened me in many ways. I have done community service for our local community, visiting children at a hospital, and helping the elderly by cleaning their houses, and spending time with them. I was also a member of the Dermatology and Pathology Interest Group and Pediatric Interest Group of Ponce School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and assist in almost every community clinic.


My involvement in the group has motivated, and inspired me even more as I get to feel what firsthand experience in clinics is like. Not only all of this experiences during my masters in Ponce School of Medicine & Health Sciences has enlighten me, but has also open out a lot of opportunities to step up my career path.

Universidad Metropolitana's Impact

In Universidad Metropolitana I found a lot of my answers once I started working in a biology research lab. During my 4th year in college during my bachelor, I heard about an opening in the developmental Biology laboratory. I had no prior experience, but I decided I would venture out and applied. I talked with Dr. Luis E. Vazquez Quiñones, currently my collaborator in my research, and expressed to him my interest. He told me that he was not looking for more students, but I could still go to his laboratory and learn some biology techniques. I started going and he noticed my effort and dedication in research. After that, I used to be his right-hand in the laboratory and also mentoring.


As a researcher myself, I have personally felt the impact in the level of understanding, and knowledge that research can provide you with. I started working as a mentor to students that had not taken any bioinformatics courses. The project we were working on, and continue to be involved with, deals with evaluating the protein family Ferredoxin-Dependent Bilin Reductase (FDBR) which are involved in chlorophyll catabolism in plants. With this study we hope to widen the current knowledge of this family of proteins so as to promote further research work. Past semester, due to my experience, and continued interest, my mentor presented me with the opportunity to contribute my knowledge as a leader of the group, an opportunity I took happily. As a leader, I have been in charge of organizing, and assigning projects to each member as well as making sure each member completes the project. My mentor has been so pleased with my work that he recommended me to the Pittsburgh Computing Center (PSC) for a summer internship that I had this past summer.


Given to all of the opportunities that I have had from this college, it’s been very motivating to my career path driving me through the skills that a complete professional should have. They help me achieve part of my dream goals.

Carnegie Mellon University impacted me in a Bioinformatics level!

Thanks to the opportunity and all the work done in the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center by the Carnegie Mellon University, I have not only learned to be a leader, but to be more responsible, how to work under pressure and independently, while at the same time learning the importance of teamwork. They also inspired me even more to be a very hardworking person, be more responsible & organized, and tenacious as can be seen by my accomplishments in all my life.


Currently, I am writing a research paper that will be publish this year. And they have given me the opportunity to assist to MARC Workshops 2012, to update, network and keep on building my profession path.