ABSTRACT
First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Biology Open, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Valentina Laverde is first author on ‘ The zebrafish ETS transcription factor Fli1b functions upstream of Scl/Tal1 during embryonic hematopoiesis’, published in BiO. Valentina conducted the research described in this article while a research scientist in Dr Saulius Sumanas's lab at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA. She is now a PhD student at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA, and is interested in cancer immunology research and how to better target the tumor microenvironment to improve anti-tumor immunity.
Valentina Laverde
Describe your scientific journey and your current research focus
During my undergraduate, I became interested in working in research after taking different science courses that had a laboratory component. Here, I learned from my teaching assistants about research as a possible career and eventually decided to pursue a master's degree in medical sciences. I focused on studying the pancreatic tumor microenvironment while I did my master's degree, and the experience solidified my desire to pursue research as a lifelong career. After graduating, I transitioned to working as a research scientist in Dr Sumanas' lab, where my primary project was looking at the ETS transcription factor Fli1b in zebrafish. My time in the Sumanas lab helped me develop my research skills. During my time there, I decided to return to my initial interest in cancer immunology and applied to PhD programs. Now, I am at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) doing rotations in labs focused on studying different aspects of cancer immunology.
Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?
Part of my initial interest in becoming a scientist was my experience in undergraduate labs. Apart from that, a main source of inspiration was my mom. When I was a child, she had ovarian cancer. It was able to be detected in enough time and the tumor was removed, but her experience and its repercussions on her health changed her day-to-day life. This spurred a curiosity for me from a young age to understand what happened to my mom and what else could be done to help with cancer treatments.
How would you explain the main finding of your paper?
We identified new roles for the gene regulator fli1b in blood cell development using the zebrafish model. Loss of fli1b in mutant zebrafish embryos showed reduced red blood cell numbers at early stages of blood cell development. Another known regulator of blood cell development, scl, was seen to be reduced in fli1b mutant embryos and, when we increased its expression, fli1b recovered as well in mutants. We also identified increased production of myeloid cells in mutants, a type of blood cell that forms during blood cell development. Our findings indicate that fli1b affects blood cell development in new ways based on our results.
What are the potential implications of this finding for your field of research?
The potential implication of this finding furthers what we know regarding the molecular mechanisms involved in hematovascular differentiation during development. With a better understanding of these mechanisms, development of treatments in regenerative medicine can be improved with more knowledge related to generation of hematopoietic and progenitor cells.
Confocal imaging of macrophage-like cells observed with GFP expression when imaging the cranial region of fli1b mutant embryos at 3 days post fertilization. This was an unexpected finding when we decided to look at later time points to study myeloid cell populations in fli1b mutants.
Which part of this research project was the most rewarding?
Presenting this project at a poster session for the first time was very rewarding. This was for many reasons, including that it was my first poster presentation and conference, but also because getting to talk about what I had been working on for over year at that point was exciting.
What do you enjoy most about being an early-career researcher?
As an early-career researcher, I've had an opportunity to be exposed to different kinds of research and scientists with different experiences. This has provided me with resources and knowledge to build a solid foundation now that I've started as a PhD student.
What piece of advice would you give to the next generation of researchers?
Be open to trying something new, it can be scary but very rewarding in the end. When I first joined the Sumanas lab, I had no experience with the zebrafish model but, during my 2 years in the lab, I learned a lot about developmental biology and new techniques that I did not know prior.
What's next for you?
I'm currently in the first year as a PhD student at OHSU, going through rotations. In the coming weeks, I will be choosing my lab and mentor for my PhD; following this, I will officially start in my lab and start developing a project.
Valentina Laverde's contact details: Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
E-mail: [email protected]
