I work at the National Cancer Institute (INCAN-Mexico). It is a long way that I walk from the entrance of the Institute to my workplace. It is not an easy path, every day I see cancer patients in the corridors, I see the suffering in their faces, the pain in their bodies, the desolation in their relatives. It is all these people who inspire me to do my job. Because I know that there is a better future for those patients, and I am convinced that it can only be achieved through research. That is why I want to continue with my doctoral studies. I was introduced to cancer when I was in 4th semester in College. I took a course in Cell Physiology and was surprised about how cells work, how they grow, move and divide. The last topic we reviewed was …show more content…
At the international level, the picture is similar. I realized that if I really wanted to make something to change this situation I should prepare very well. This led me to study a master's degree at one of the best universities in Latin America, the National Autonomous University of Mexico. I studied a master's degree in Biochemical sciences, I carried out my research work at the INCAN. A cancer center recognized nationally and worldwide. In January 2015, I joined the group of Dr. Luis Herrera (current Head of Research at INCAN). The objective of Dr. Herrera's research is to investigate the mechanisms of chromosomal instability and brings basic science from the bench to the clinic. Dr. Herrera's group is very large, almost 40 people. Everyone studies chromosomal instability, but each person uses a different approach, i.e., cellular, epigenetic, clinical, genetic. Despite the challenges of working in a large group, it was very inspiring had exchanged ideas with great minds, had shared what I know with young scientist and had the opportunity to establish collaborations. I really enjoy laboratory work, but sometimes it was difficult and frustrating. But, one of the advantages of working in such a large group was that I never felt alone. Thus, teamwork always was a …show more content…
In 2016, I started to work with Dr. Diddier Prada. Within a multidisciplinary environment, we studied the association between the levels of 5hmC, DNA mark, and the clinical characteristics in a cohort of patients with breast cancer. The results of this collaboration were presented in 3 international congresses (15th World Congress on Cancer Therapy, Biomarkers and Clinical Research; the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, 2017; the Global Academic Program of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2017) For the quality of this work, we received the prize for the best work in clinical research by the Secretary of Health (Mexico). We are currently preparing the article of this