The Postdoc Corner
The EPA social media team came up with the idea of creating a spotlight moment for all of our postdocs: ''The postdoc corner''! We have so many bright scientists in our institution that it is a waste not to acknowledge the talent of each one of them!
Do you want to be spotlighted? Contact the EPA for more information (epa.einstein@gmail.com).
Dr. Silvia Hernández
Silvia is a Biologist, originally from Spain, who got her doctorate degree at The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh - Scotland - by studying the genetics of litter size and prenatal survival in pigs. She joined Einstein's Department of Medicine- Cardiology in 2020 to work in Dr. Frangogiannis' Laboratory and help discover the role of fibroblasts during myocardial infarction and hypertrophy in the heart (cellular and molecular levels). So, if you need help with techniques such as primary cell culture, qPCR, and planning/troubleshooting of experiments... now you know who to call!
Silvia loves spending time with her friends and family and enjoys organizing dinner parties at her place. But, most importantly, because she has lived in many different countries/cities (Edinburgh, Rotterdam…), she also LOVES to travel and is always looking for opportunities to visit her old friends!
She also plays a crucial role as an EPA co-chair and a Quality of life representative, supporting postdocs and presenting their interests directly to Einstein's faculty and administration, as needed. In her own words: "I like to listen to what postdocs have to say, most of the time their complaints! I always take it to the administration and try to change whatever I can to improve postdocs' lives in Einstein. After Covid, it has been difficult to bring everyone together, but I'm not going to stop trying for as long as I am in AECOM."
[Originally Published Mar 2023]
Dr. Aline Horta
[Originally Published Mar 2023]
Dr. Valeria De La Rosa-Reyes
Valeria is a trained anatomist/neuroscientist who graduated from the University of Puerto Rico- Medical Science Campus. During her thesis investigations, she became an expert on the Transmission Electron Microscopy technique, and learned with more details about what is happening in the tissue by studying the effects of retinoic acid and macrophages after optic nerve injury in ‘Rana pipiens’. She joined Einstein's Developmental and Molecular Biology department in 2021 to work in Dr. Teresa Bowman and Dr. Ellen Fraint's laboratory and with all of her experience in Immunofluorescence, Light microscopy, and cellular transplantation in zebrafish embryos, she aims to find novel players at early stages of hematopoietic progenitors engraftment that could improve transplantations. WOW!
If you want to reach out and discuss her latest discoveries, she's available by email or at:
→https://twitter.com/vdelarosareyes
→https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriadelarosareyes/
Valeria is also a Postdoc representative in the Quality of Life (QoL) Committee and a co-chair at the SACNAS Chapter- The Society for Advancing Hispanic, Chicanos, & Native Americans in Science. We are so grateful for all of your efforts!
When she isn't in the lab you can find her exploring the outdoors. Valeria is very passionate about museums, dancing, reading, and most importantly: spending lots of quality time with her friends!
[Originally Published Mar 2023]
Dr. Claire Launay
Claire is an applied mathematician who graduated from the University of Paris where she got her doctorate degree by working on stochastic processes and vision. She joined Einstein in 2020 to work in the Systems and Computational Biology Department, bringing all of her expertise to Dr. Coen-Cagli's laboratory- The Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience - to work on perceptual segmentation and grouping by developing probabilistic models for image and video segmentation - so smart!
So, if you need help with techniques such as image processing, computer science, probabilistic models, or texture synthesis... now you know who to call! If anyone is interested in checking out her latest work she recently presented her paper on dynamic segmentation (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9897691) at the IEEE-ICIP conference!
In her day-to-day adventures, you will rarely see Claire without a camera as she loves taking pictures of her loved ones and of anything happening around her, really! She also loves singing in her shower, and sometimes, in a choir- Wow!
However, she is leaving us soon to return to France. So, Claire, we are very grateful for these past two years in your presence and for all of the amazing contributions you've given us on all EPA social media platforms. We hope to do a good job continuing all of your hard work! We will miss you!
[Originally Published Feb 2023]
Dr. Ritesh K. Aggarwal
Ritesh is originally from India- Delhi-6, and graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology where he got his doctorate degree in Biochemical Engineering designing valid models for bacterial gene regulation- among other unique techniques! He joined Dr. Amit Verma's laboratory in the Developmental and Molecular Biology department in 2019 to work with solid tumors and is currently working on new strategies to stall cancer by targeting the specific kinase IRAK4 in the innate immune signaling pathway. His latest work was published in the PNAS journal (2021), where he discussed how ''Functional succinate dehydrogenase deficiency is a common adverse feature of clear cell renal cancer'' (click on the link below to check it out). So, if you need help with techniques such as confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, mass spectrometry, metabolomics, and everything invitro/tumor-related... now you know who to call!
→ https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2106947118
Our bright scientist is also a member of the Einstein Postdoc Association (EPA) and along with other EPA members, he's part of the team that organizes the super fun International Coffee hour that we so enjoy. BUT... that's not all!! He's also a board member of the newest Einstein Cricket Team (EiCC)- and is looking for new members to join! Among all these cool activities, you can also find him playing some video games, or tennis, or enjoying his time with his beautiful family. Wow!
[Originally Published Feb 2023]
Dr. Rebekah Guevara
Rebekah is originally from Long Island and graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover- New Hampshire, with a doctorate degree in Microbiology & Immunology. She joined Dr. Louis Weiss' laboratory in the Pathology department in the Fall of 2020 to bring all of her 10 years of expertise in working with the complex eukaryotic parasite Toxoplasma gondii to explore its protein-protein interactions at the cyst wall. So, if you need help with techniques such as confocal microscopy, Co-IPs & Proteomic workflows and everything Toxoplasma-related... now you know who to call!
You can find her out in nature when Rebekah isn't in the lab. She loves to hike to see beautiful views. She enjoys sunsets and often tries to catch one outside her lab window. She enjoys spending time with her husband Matt, and her sweet baby girl Grace.
[Originally Published Feb 2023]
Dr. Taiane Nascimento
According to Taiane, the beach life is her natural habitat and It makes sense since she is originally from Rio de Janeiro- Brazil! Taiane has been working with yeast infection for over 5 years and she arrived at Einstein in 2021 to work in Dr. Liise-Anne Pirofski's laboratory, located in the Infectious Disease department. So, if you need help with techniques such as yeast culture, flow cytometry, animal experimentation, fluorescence microscopy, and immunoassays.. now you know who to call!
She's very passionate about fiction books, films, and wine tasting!! However, in her own words: ''I would trade any of those hobbies for the company of my good friends''
[Originally Published Jan 2023]