Hello All! My name is Jennifer. I am a first year Ph.D. student in the Microbiology and Molecular Genetics program at Rutgers University. I am from Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico: a town on the west coast with beautiful beaches and sun every day. I have a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Microbiology and a master’s degree in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM). My interest in science started at a very young age. As a kid, I was a member of the Future Farmers of America. There I learned to love nature, conserve the environment and teach the people around me how to both enjoy and conserve our natural resources at the same time. I was always active in field activities like planting trees and guiding tours in the natural reservoirs of my town. As an undergrad, I worked in several research projects including determining the ecology of Cryptococcus neoformans/gatti in Puerto Rico and studying citrus pathogens. A turning point in my life happened in my third year as an undergraduate. My father was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. By that time, I knew that I loved science, but I wanted to help them and help those who suffer from disease just like them. Dr. Carlos Acevedo, my immunology professor at that time, was one of my inspirations to pursue research. Thanks to him, I realized that I can help people through research, and I don’t have to be a medical doctor to help people because I can unravel any scientific problem on the bench. I enrolled in several molecular courses like molecular biology of cancer, molecular genetics and virology. In my last semester as an undergraduate, I decided to give virology a chance. That chance changed my life. I began working with a master’s student helping to collect and process data towards the analysis of seroprevalence of Parvovirus B19 in Puerto Rico. After a few months of involvement with the project, I decided to start my master’s in the same laboratory. My master’s project was studying the seroprevalence of Epstein-Barr Virus in Puerto Rico. In my first year as a master’s student, I met Dr. Langer and Dr. Chaparro who are members of the BRIDGE UPRM to Rutgers Program. The program allows students interested in research to pursue doctoral studies at Rutgers University. I decided to apply, and this has been one of the best choices of my life. The program gave me mentoring, the opportunity to be accepted here with advance standing and to travel to the annuel ASV meeting in Colorado to present my research for the first time. Currently, I am working in Dr. Joseph Marcotrigiano’s laboratory at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine. I love my laboratory’s diverse scope of projects, the lab culture and I love my own project. In our laboratory, we study viral proteins from pathogens of human importance such as hepatitis C virus, chikungunya virus and HIV. We also study RIG-I, a protein associated with the innate immune response to infection. In my research, I am characterizing the structure and function of the Alphavirus replication complex. During this year, I learned a lot, from protein expression, purification, and crystallography to enzymatic activity assays such as methyltransferase assays. One of my goals is to be a mentor and motivate young scientists through research. This is some of who I am and what has moved me to where I am now. I am very pleased to be here at Rutgers University and meeting a lot of good people that are making my days away from home easier. In my free time, I relax with my new friends watching movies, trying new foods, visiting new places or just enjoying their company. No matter how we all ended up here, all of us have a motivation: something that moved us to this point. During hard times, we just have to remember that motivation and our goals and work for it. Louis Pasteur said once: “Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity”. We have to keep trying. I hope my blog entries motivate new scientists and give some of the information needed to succeed in this step of our career.
iJOBS Blog