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.