Research focus: Neuron subtype-specific metabolic constraints underlying selective vulnerability and neurodegeneration.
What drives me: The remarkable complexity of the nervous system and the challenge of making sense of it. Each day in science feels like the chance to fit one more piece into that puzzle. The possibility that even my smallest contribution could help tread the path toward treating disease is what motivates me.
Something few people know about me: In high school, I had a few ‘odd jobs,’ including making and selling cheesecake and being a birthday clown.
My favorite food: Puerto Rican food, easily. One specific dish? Mofongo with pork.
In my free time: A favorite way to spend my free time is experimenting in the kitchen with new foods or playing with my two pups in the yard. If coffee drinking could be a free-time activity, that would be a strong runner-up.
“In second grade, we had to write this ‘All About Me’ book, and I drew a picture of myself in a white coat. There’s no one in my family in science, but my thought was I’d be a great scientist because I love to learn new things.”
