University: Stanford University
Hometown: Miami, FL
NIH Research Project:
Comparison of Anti-HIV ADCC Activity in Chimpanzees Immunized with Replicating and Non-Replicating Ad-HIV
Mentor: Marjorie Robert-Guroff, Ph.D.
Basic Research Laboratory, Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
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The passion for research, an intense curiosity, and a strong will and determination have been key elements that influenced my selection of a scientific research career.
What do I find attractive about viruses and bacteria? It is amazing and scary how such minute organisms can cause such devastating damage to humanity. My aunt, an epidemiologist, noticed my enormous curiosity for the microscopic world. She gave me a special gift, a microscope, and from that moment on I observed all kinds of plant epithelial cells and collected water from ponds to observe the swimming bacteria, elegantly moving their flagella.
During my sophomore year at Miami Dade Community College, I worked on a dendritic cells project at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The study aimed to develop a more efficient method to generate dendritic cells in vitro from their monocyte precursors by stimulating them with differentiation factors known as cytokines.
As a UGSP Scholar, I am training in Dr. Marjorie Robert-Guroff's laboratory in the Vaccine Branch of the National Cancer Institute. The focus of the lab is to develop an effective HIV vaccine. I am assessing the ability of antibodies from chimps immunized with an HIV vaccine to mediate the killing of HIV infected cells when they bind to the HIV surface proteins. Effectors, cells that kill the infected cells, recognize the chimp antibodies bound to the surface molecules and actively kill the infected cells.
During my senior year, I plan to look at the tumor factors that inhibit antigen presenting dendritic cells from stimulating an anti-tumor response in cancer patients. My ultimate goal is to pursue a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology.
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