About me

I enjoy thinking about how to provide the most helpful advice to young scientists. I am interested in sharing the wisdom and experience I have been so lucky and privileged to gain over more than 20 years working in academic biomedical labs. Starting my career as a young scientist myself, I reveled in watching bugs and thinking about the chemistry of cooking, and I was very fortunate to join a neuroscience lab for a summer in high school. Now I draw from my adventures as a neurophysiologist to guide young scientists publish their first manuscripts, decide their academic future, or improve their application materials to take the next step in their academic career.

I studied to be a biomedical researcher at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) where I worked on finding plant compounds to inhibit Helicobacter pylori growth or novel genes underlying MODY-type diabetes. Most importantly, I fell in love with electrophysiology and ion channel biophysics in the lab of Professor Luis Vaca while studying the effects of a very potent toxin, Maitotoxin. I pursued graduate training at the University of Pennsylvania where I devoted 9 years to study the mechanisms of ion channel function at the single molecule level in the lab of Professor Zhe Lu. Excited by the possibilities of applying my molecular biophysics understanding to clinical problems, I became a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Professor Gary Yellen at Harvard Medical School. Thanks to good fortune and lots of hard work I have found the perfect environment to develop my science. I currently study how brain metabolism affects neuronal activity and how to use this knowledge to treat epilepsy.

I am immensely grateful to have so many great mentors and I am always delighted with the opportunity of passing some wisdom along.

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Created by Juan Martinez-Francois.

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