Keeping an eye on prevention
Three May 2015 graduates of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's legacy institutions have their sights set on public health, medicine and epidemiology. Cecilia Colom, Samantha Gomez and Johnathon Waggoner have landed gap-year jobs as research associates in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Johnson, a researcher and associate professor at the UTRGV South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute, and principal investigator on STDOI's diabetes-related eye disease research program, with a primary focus on diabetic retinopathy. The three research associates will have a key role in Johnson's research program - processing blood samples collected from populations in the South Texas region and Nepal - to identify and understand the genetic mechanisms that influence eye diseases of major public health importance. The future might be anyone's guess, but if I had to make a calculated prediction about what looms ahead, it is all about Samantha, Cecilia, and Johnathon throughout the first decade of their career as scientists, starting here in the Valley," he said. "Helping promote their core identity as scientists, while creating the scientific home-base for the School of Medicine, is the preeminent professional challenge of the next decade for our programs. STDOI is leading the way in developing a unique range of expertise to train both scientists and physicians meet RGV's health challenges, and that of the world. This is what inspires and excites us every minute of every day about UTRGV and the School of Medicine."