Dr. Nomeli Nuñez Ph.D., MPH earned a BA in biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz as a MBRS undergraduate participant. He earned his Master's Degree in Public Health (MPH) from Johns Hopkins University, with a focus in health policy and management. As part of his MPH, Dr. Nuñez collaborated with the Office of Minority Health and co-authored a Chartbook on Latino children and health care access. He holds a doctoral degree in Pharmacology & Toxicology from Washington State University. His doctorate work focused on alcohol, cancer progression and body wasting. He completed postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). His work at the NIDDK focused on studying the role the Insulin-like Growth Factor I Receptor (IGF-1R) in cell-cell adhesion and motility. Most recently, he completed postdoctoral training as a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Rockville, Maryland. His work at the NCI focused on topics such as the 1) prevention of obesity and breast cancer; 2) obesity, wound healing and angiogenesis; 3) obesity, Insulin-like Growth Factor-1, and breast cancer and 4) the effects of tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors on bone metabolism. Dr. Nuñez' laboratory at UT will focus on examining the effects of obesity on wound healing as well as the effects of alcohol consumption on breast cancer, with the goal of better understanding how obesity and alcohol consumption predispose a woman to breast cancer.

Blake Riggs, Ph.D. has been a part of the MARC and MBRS programs as both a graduate and an undergraduate. In 1994 he started as a MARC scholar when he was a junior in college. He continued his graduate education at UCSC in Professor Bill Sullivan’s lab and completed hi Ph.D. in 2005. Today, he is a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

Antonio Carrasco M.D., Ph.D didn’t follow the typical pathway to achieving his M.D./Ph.D degrees. He had trouble in the beginning of his college career and took a leave of absence for two years. Dr. Carrasco returned to UCSC in the fall of 1993 to continue his undergraduate studies in biology. He excelled in his studies, became eligible for the NIGMS MARC/MBRS programs and worked in the lab of Professor C.L. Ortiz. He received his Ph.D. in 2002 on a MARC fellowship and was immediately accepted into Mayo’s Medical School. Carrasco is currently completing his residency and wants to combine his extensive research training and medicine in his future plans.

Mareshia Donald graduated from UCSC in 2004 with a B.S. in neurobiology. This wasn’t an easy task for her, coming from a single income home and being the first in her family to graduate from college. Mareshia started her college education at a community college before transferring to UCSC. She participated in the MARC program and excelled in her research in David Feldheim’s research lab. Opting to take some time after her B.S. to do more research, she worked as a “post bac” at Tufts University. Currently, Mareshia is pursuing a Ph.D. at Brandies University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Cameron Bess, Ph. D. Candidate, Rockefeller University. Cameron, a former MARC student, graduated from the University of California Santa Cruz with a BS degree in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at The Rockefeller University in New York City. His main focus of study is looking at mechanisms of viral entry and recruitment kinetics of host cell endocytotic machinery. He plans to defend his thesis shortly and find a post doctoral position following his graduate studies at Rockefeller.

Furman Chavez, Ph.D. earned a MS degree in chemistry at Cal State Los Angeles. Afterward he worked for FDA but decided to attend medical school, but decided to pursue research. Recruited to UCSC, he joined the IMSD-sponsored program and did excellent work with Dr. P. Mascharak for his Ph.D. thesis. He did his postdoctoral work at University of Minnesota. Currently he is an Assistant Professor of Bioinorganic Chemistry, Oakland University, Rochester, MI.

Nora Espinoza, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Erskine College, Due West, SC. She received her Ph.D. in evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago in 2000.After completing a postdoctoral position at the University of Tennessee. Her focus was functional morphology, biomechanics, and ecology of whole organisms, with and emphasis on the musculoskeletal systems of frogs. Espinoza worked under Professor Barry Bowman at UCSC earning a BA in biology in 1992.

“MBRS was valuable to me for the research experience it provided. It allowed me to get hands-on experience in doing a project from beginning to end. The transition to graduate school was not so shocking for me as for most undergraduates, many of whom learn mostly from texts and experience only canned lab experiments.”

Edgardo Farinas, Ph.D. earned his Ph.D. in the lab of Dr. P. Mascharak in 1997. Currently, Farinas is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science at New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research interests are in engineering enzymes with improved properties using directed evolution and rational approaches. His group is also developing novel protein display technologies. Before joining the faculty at NJIT, Farinas did postdoctoral research at University of Texas at Austin that involved the directed evolution of protease substrate specificity with Profs. George Georgiou and Brent Iverson from June 2003 to June 2004. His first postdoctoral fellowship was at Yale 1997 through 1999 and on to California Institute Technology 1999-2003.

“The program was very helpful in my career path. Since I did not have to TA, the money provided me more time to concentrate on research that lead to several publications. Publications are the only gauge for success when you are not known. Hence, my publication record at UCSC has allowed me to study with internationally know researchers. Also, Pradip provided training, guidance, and ethics that was second to none.”

"The MBRS program influenced me to pursue a career in academia-I became interested in teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels."

Mary Francis Lopez, Ph.D. completed her Ph.D. at UCSC in the lab of Dr. Frank Talamantes in 1992. The first in her family to go to university she received a postdoctoral fellowship from Harvard. She later received a position as instructor of pediatric endocrinology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital and was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) in 2004.

Adan Colon-Carmona, Ph.D. received his BA at UCSC in 1989. He is an Assistant Professor at U. of Mass., Boston in the Biology Department. He received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine in the Biological Sciences in 1994. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in The Salk Institute in Plant Cell Biology 1995-1998 and the University of California, Davis Plant Signal Transduction, 1999.

“Without the opportunity to participate in research and be mentored by MBRS Program faculty, I don't think I would be doing what I am doing now. Exposure to scientists that care about their research as much as teaching and mentoring had a great influence on how I view my role at the university level.”