Outstanding Accomplishments
Jose L. Reyes González, a doctor in Neurosciences student of the UCC Graduate Program 
in Biomedical Sciences, was selected to offer an oral presentation at the Third Interdisciplinary Research Symposium held at the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine. His presentation titled A Mouse Model of Gulf War Illness Allows for Mechanistic Studies and the Search for Antidotes was awarded First Place in the Oral Presentation Category of the scientific activity.
Additionally, he was recently selected for an International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS) 2019 Travel Award for the 2019 meeting in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Award winners will receive a cash award, certificate, and waiver of registration fees. Travel awardees are presenting orally and will have their research presented in a poster session. The IBNS encourages research and education in the field of behavioral neuroscience. Founded in 1992, the IBNS has members from 34 countries and consists of scientists, clinicians, teachers, and others with a background and interest in the relationship between brain and behavior. Congratulations.
Congratulations to Tiffany Ríos for Winning a SACNAS Travel Scholarship and her selection to give an oral presentation at the 2016 ASCB Annual Meeting.
Congratulat
ions to Tiffany Rios, Ph.D. Student, for winning a SACNAS Travel Scholarship to participate and present her research at the 2016 SACNAS – The National Diversity in STEM Conference to be held on October 13-15, 2016 in Long Beach, CA.
Tiffany has also been selected to give an oral presentation about her work: “Ganoderma lucidum extract signific
antly decreases stemness properties in Inflammatory Breast Cancer cells via STAT3 regulation”, at the 2016 American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Annual Meeting. This meeting will be held on December 3-7, 2016 in San Francisco, CA.
Tiffany is a student in the UCC-RISE program and currently conducts research under the advice and mentorship of Dr. Michelle Martínez-Montemayor, faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at UCC.
Congratulations Natalia Valentín for Winning a American Association for Anatomists (AAA) Travel Award
Congratulations to Natalia Valentín, Ph.D. Student, for winning a American Association of Anatomists (AAA) Travel Award to participate and present her research at the Experimental Biology 2016 Annual Meeting to be held on April 2-5, 2016 in San Diego, CA. Natalia will present her abstract titled: “A Unique Case of Branching Pattern in the Superior Mediastinum: A Brachiocephalic Trunk with Four Branches, and the Left Thyrocervical Trunk Arising From the Aortic Arch”.
Natalia is a student in the UCC-RISE program and currently conducts research under the advice and mentorship of Dr. Wilson Veras, faculty of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at UCC.
Congratulations Kimberleve Rolón and Miguel Méndez for Winning a SPINES Travel Award
Congratulations to Kimberleve Rolón & Miguel Méndez, Ph.D. students, for winning a SPINES Travel Award to participate at the SPINES Symposium Meeting to be held on October 16, 2015 in Chicago, IL. Miguel is a student in the UCC-RISE program and currently conducts research under the advice and mentorship of Dr. Misty Eaton, faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at UCC. Kimberleve is also a student in the UCC-RISE program and currently conducts research under the advice and mentorship of Dr. Lilia Kucheryavykh a faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at UCC. Also, she is currently performing her research as collaboration in the laboratory of Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa at Johns Hopkins University.
Congratulations Kimberleve Rolón for Winning a 2015 AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award
Congratulations to Kimberleve Rolón, Ph.D. student, for winning a 2015 AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Award to participate and present her research at the AACR-NCI-EORTC “Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics” Conference to be held on November 5-9, 2015 in Boston, MA. Kimberleve will present her abstract titled: “Combined therapy with temozolomide and PF-562271, a PYK2 inhibitor, reduces glioma tumor growth and dispersal compare to temozolomide monotherapy”.
Kimberleve is a student in the UCC-RISE program and currently conducts research under the advice and mentorship of Dr. Lilia Kucheryavykh, faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at UCC. Also, Kimberleve is currently performing her research as a collaboration in the laboratory of Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa at Johns Hopkins University.
Ph.D. Student Wins 1st Place at Graduate Poster Competition
Tiffany Ríos was awarded 1st Place in the Graduate Poster Competition at the 2nd Puerto Rico Cancer Research Meeting, which took place in October 2, 2015.
Her research, titled: “Ganoderma lucidum extract and Erlotinib combined decrease cell viability and tumor progression in inflammatory breast cancer”, was performed at the Department of Biochemistry at UCC, under the advice and mentorship of Dr. Michelle M. Martínez Montemayor. Congratulations to Tiffany and Dr. Martínez!
Congratulations Tiffany Ríos for Winning a 2015 Advances in Breast Cancer Research – AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Award
Congratulations to Tiffany Ríos, Ph.D. Student, for winning a 2015 AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award to participate in the specialized AACR “Advances in Breast Cancer Research” Conference. The award for the 8th AACR Special Conference focused on the latest advances in breast cancer research is granted to one student from a minority group underrepresented in the biomedical sciences. This meeting is held every two years and addresses basic and translational breast cancer research, not typically covered in other breast cancer conferences. The conference will be held on October 17-20, 2015 in Bellevue, WA, and Tiffany will present her abstract entitled: “Combination of Ganoderma lucidum extract and Erlotinib decreases IBC progression”. Tiffany is a student in the UCC-RISE program and currently conducts research on the use of conventional therapies in complement with Ganoderma lucidum extract and its effects on stemness in inflammatory breast cancer under the advice and mentorship of Dr. Michelle Martínez-Montemayor a member of the Cancer Research Unit and faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at UCC.
Ph.D. Students win travel award to the 2015 NEURAL Conference
Congratulations to
Miguel Méndez and David Rivera, for winning travel awards to present their research entitled “Novel KCNJ10 SNPs affect Kir4.1 biophysical properties and their modulation by spermine”and “Hyperglycemia reduces astrocytic potassium channels and function” at the 2015 National Enhancement of Underrepresented Academic Leaders (NEURAL) Conference at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. Miguel and David are conduction their research under the supervision and mentorship of Dr. Misty Eaton from the Department of Biochemistry at UCC.
Ph.D. Student Wins 2nd Place at Poster Competition in the 2nd Puerto Rico Cell Signaling Meeting
Miguel Méndez was awarded the 2nd place. His research, entitled “SNPs in the KCNJ10 Gene Affect Kir4.1 Channel Function”, was performed at the UCC Biochemistry Department, under the supervision of Dr. Misty Eaton. Congratulations to Miguel and Dr. Eaton!
Ph.D. Student Wins 2nd Place at Poster Competition
Natalia Valentín was awarded 2nd Place in The Seventh Annual Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) Southeast Regional Conference Poster Competition.
Her research, titled “A Unique Branching Pattern Of The Celiac Trunk. Its Clinical And Embryological Significance”, was performed at the UCC Anatomy and Cell Biology Department, under the supervision of Dr. Wilson Veras. Congratulations to Natalia and Dr. Veras!
Ph.D. Student performs research at Johns Hopkins University
Kimberleve Rolón, Ph.D. student in the Cellular and Molecular Biology program, is currently performing research in the laboratory Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, world renowned Professor of Neurosurgery and Oncology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The research involves experiments with human glioblastoma tissue samples and development of primary glioblastoma cell cultures. The laboratory of Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa has many years´of experience in this procedure. Congratulations to Kimberleve for this great accomplishment!