Written by Daniel Chavarria, Ph.D.
I grew up in the sister cities of Ciudad Juárez, México and El Paso, Texas, one of the largest international border communities in the Western hemisphere. This dynamic metro area is contained between two mountains ranges. At the north we have the Franklin Mountains and to the south the Sierra de Juárez, the twin cities are bisected by the Rio Grande, locally known in Ciudad Juárez as the Rio Bravo. I remember the hot dry summers of the Chihuahuan desert, reaching temperatures above 100o C, eating burritos, and drinking my uncle’s famous raspas (a form of shave iced, usually mixed with milk-based syrups) with my family. Listening to the rich sounds of the accordion from the Norteño music while visiting the local open-air markets. The harsh climate of the Chihuahuan desert is tough, and in a very biased manner I think it makes even tougher people.
My two professional role models are my dad, a mechanical engineer, and my aunt, a medical doctor. My dad instilled in me a sense of curiosity for building and fixing any kind of mechanical device. My dad would always tell my siblings and I that we needed to have “chispa”, which nowadays I interpret as initiative and critical thinking. There are pictures of me as child “fixing” a loose screw in one of our kitchen chairs, early signs of my interest in engineering. My aunt, on the other hand, instilled me in a sense of service for those in need. As a medical doctor, my aunt took care of both of my grandparents who suffered from multiple diseases including type 2 diabetes, asthma, stroke, cardiomegaly, and Alzheimer’s disease. Moreover, during the height of the cartel violence at the Mexican-American border, my aunt aided families of kidnapping victims in recovering their loved ones. These were tough times for my family and I, but nonetheless they formed the foundation for my personality and my career.
I was fortunate enough, thanks to my dad’s foresight, to attend Mission Early College High School. At the age of 17, I graduated with my Associated Degree in Arts. A year later I graduated with my high school diploma, talk about a confusing timeline. I then enrolled at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and had the honor to be awarded a BUILDING SCHOLARS scholarship, a prestigious NIH initiative aimed at training the next generation of biomedical researchers in the U.S. Southwest region. I had several research experiences at UTEP as a BUILD scholar, but none quite changed my life as my summer research experience at the University of Texas at Austin, working for Dr. Aaron Baker. It was here that I fell in love with the world of Biomedical Engineering (BME). I spent the summer researching the effects of cyclic mechanical strain (fancy words for stretching cells) and its effects on breast cancer cell behavior. I made my first scientific discovery in which we found that very specific strain patterns induced quiescence and therefore chemoresistance in breast cancer cells. I was blown away to know that I had aided my graduate mentor in making such a fascinating discovery.
After graduating from UTEP with my B.S. in Biological Sciences, I enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin to pursue a Ph.D. in BME. I was co-advised by Dr. Aaron Baker and Dr. Andrew Dunn. I spent the next six years of my life working on a variety of projects. I was able to significantly contribute and finish our work on the effects of cyclic mechanical strain on breast cancer cell behavior (Spencer, 2021). I also worked on installing cranial windows in mice so we can study how cortical microvasculature changes over time utilizing advanced imaging modalities such as Speckle imaging and two-photon microscopy. My main thesis work focused on developing a high-throughput blood brain barrier in vitro model that incorporated shear stress to mimic the hemodynamic effects of blood flow and improved the predictive power of our model for drug discovery (Chavarria, 2023). I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the University of Texas at Austin but when it came to my research, I always felt like a fish out of water as I had become interested in the field of neurovascular biology and engineering.
Luckily, I joined Dr. Ethan Lippmann’s lab in the department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Vanderbilt University for my postdoc. I have to say, nearing my one-year employment anniversary, my time at Vanderbilt University has been phenomenal. I am thankful to not only work in such a collaborative laboratory but also a collaborative institution. My research focus has slightly shifted since graduating with my Ph.D. I am still interested in developing devices that incorporate biophysical forces such as strain and shear stress in vitro for mechanobiological studies. However, now I want to create high-fidelity neurovascular in vitro models of the neurovasculature to study the effects of type 2 diabetes on Alzheimer’s disease development. Using the latest advancement in microfluidics, stem cell biology, and genetic engineering I plan to create the next generation of neurovascular models to help me answer some of the proposed hypotheses on how type 2 diabetes drives Alzheimer’s disease development.
For those still reading, I know I have only superficially touched upon my research interests. I opted to focus on my upbringing and my experiences. I am a firm believer that to understand a person you must understand their background. My research interests as a postdoc are deeply influenced by my early childhood experiences, witnessing the physical toll type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease took on my grandparents and the emotional toll it took on my family members. I am incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to work at Vanderbilt while conducting research in a topic that is so personal to myself. I hope my work one day significantly contributes to our understanding of these diseases and the development of future cures.