Members
Alex Chaim
Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, Alex graduated from the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas with a B.S. He then joined the Department of Biological Engineering at the MIT for his graduate studies. As part of his Ph.D. in Leona Samson’s Laboratory, Alex tried to answer the question: why do some individuals develop cancer and degenerative disease while others remain healthy? Alex then joined Gene Yeo’s laboratory at UCSD as a postdoctoral fellow where he worked in understanding the effect of nucleic acid damage on RNA Binding Protein (RBP) biology during the development of neurodegenerative diseases as well as in Autism and Cancer treatment. Alex deeply enjoys mentoring and has done so at all stages of his career. He believes that his own mentors played a very important part in his training and development as a person and a scientist and that he wouldn’t be where he is right now without their help, support and patience.
Minerva Contreras
Minerva Contreras is a 5th year PhD student at University of California San Diego Neurosciences Graduate Program, under the supervision of Nicola Allen, PhD, at the Salk Institute. Minerva is interested in astrocytes’ regulatory role in experience-dependent plasticity. Minerva is a National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine Pre-doctoral Ford Fellow and a San Diego ARCS Scholar.
Minerva received her BS degree in Biotechnology Engineering at Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Mexico, and her continuing MS in Neuroscience at UCSD. She is passionate about making scientific careers accessible to underrepresented minorities. She co-created the Colors of the Brain-KIBM Undergrad Scholars Program and is the host of Crash Course Biologia. Outside of lab, Minerva loves going on road trips with her wife and two dogs, Glia and Loki, she named the former.
Christian Cazares
Christian Cazares is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Voytek Lab at UC San Diego and co-founder of Colors of the Brain, a summer undergraduate research program at UC San Diego. His current research aims to bridge human cortical organoid physiology with human behavior and EEG in neurodevelopmental disorder patient populations. His long-term goal is to start a lab that researches cortical circuits for social decision-making and their disruption in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Isabel Mejia
Isabel Mejia is a 2nd year PhD student in the Biological Sciences Program at UC San Diego in Matt Daugherty’s lab. Isabel is interested in how viral proteases antagonize host proteins through an evolutionary perspective. Isabel is a Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation Scholar and NSF-GRFP Fellow. Isabel received her BS in general biology with a minor in global health from UC San Diego. After graduating, Isabel took two gap years and worked as a staff research associate at the Lundquist Institute. Isabel is currently a part of the leadership of SACNAS at UC San Diego and is passionate about creating inclusive communities for other minority scientists.
Andrea Ruiz D'Argence
Andrea Ruiz D’Argence is a senior undergraduate student majoring in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences at UC San Diego. She is a research assistant in the Voytek Lab studying the neural mechanisms of visual encoding and how these biophysical processes might be affected by event-related non-oscillatory activity. Before coming to San Diego, she completed her high school education at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Chiapas, Mexico. Andrea is currently in the beginning stages of her honor’s project and preparing to apply to grad school this fall.
Ebony Michelle Argaez
Ebony Michelle Argaez is a 1st year PhD student at the University of California San Diego Biological Sciences Program. She is interested in studying the origin of diversity, how genes are expressed during development, what genetic mechanisms are conserved and how they evolve to create novel structures. At the University of Maryland, Ebony received her BS degree in Biological Sciences and BA in French Language & Literature as well as her MSc in Entomology. For her MSc she was assessing the effectiveness and risk of RNA interference implementation in the milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus. She looks forward to working with CASAs to promote cultural awareness and provide a stronger and supportive community to underrepresented minorities.
Ricardo Lozoya
Ricardo Lozoya is a PhD student in the Neurosciences Graduate Program at UC San Diego, where he works in the lab of Richard Daneman. His research focuses on understanding the fundamental biology of the blood vessels that permeate the peripheral nervous system and how these vessels are affected in pathologies such as trauma and diabetes. Ricardo received his B.S. degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Rice University, after which he worked at the University of Heidelberg in Germany under a Fulbright research grant. Outside of lab, he loves backpacking, distance running, and salsa dancing. Ricardo’s work is supported in part by a grant to UCSD from the HHMI Gilliam Fellows Program.