Who Is Miriam Aceves?
Dr. Miriam Aceves is from a city called Weslaco in Texas, in an area commonly known as the Rio Grande Valley. Miriam was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Dulin lab for three years, and has recently transferred her talents to another university. Miriam is a very active person outside of the lab. She loves to stay in shape by running, paddleboarding and playing intramural sports. She recently began playing ice hockey with another lab member, Amy. Outside of staying physically fit, Miriam enjoys spending time with friends and family in any setting. In addition to these wonderful attributes, Miriam loves to give back to her community by serving as a regular blood donor and volunteering for food drives and fundraisers.
Miriam in Research
Science has been Miriam’s focal point from an early age. Succeeding in Biology and Chemistry in high school helped solidify her love for science.
However, it wasn’t until taking Psychology of Learning as an undergraduate student at Texas A&M did science become a career option for Miriam. In this class she learned that the spinal cord can continue to learn after being completely severed from the brain, and this fascinated her. Outside of class, Miriam began her own research of the topic by reading articles on spinal cord learning and plasticity. From this she learned that the field of spinal cord research still had a lot of work to be done, and decided she would like to take on the challenge of becoming a driving force in this exploration.
Since beginning research, Miriam has a new found appreciation for science, knowledge and the ones who contribute to the progression of science. She appreciates the advancement of media and the internet to make knowledge accessible. Miriam understands that conducting her own experiments has given invaluable insight and a privileged perspective of the world around us. When asked why Miriam does research, she replied with the following: “First, it allows me to satisfy my own curiosity. Experiments are like an interesting puzzle that I get to solve! Second, it allows me to contribute to society. My findings add to a growing body of work from scientists all around the world. Hopefully, this will eventually translate to treatments that can improve people’s lives.” As Miriam’s mentee, I find that this philosophy aligns with Miriam very well. I can attest to her level of curiosity and her need to help the community. Her drive is admirable and I wish to achieve a similar level of success with my own research.
Miriam has made her mark in spinal cord research by conducting experimentation that focuses on cell transplantation as a therapeutic strategy following spinal cord injury (SCI). Although the use of stem cells in neurotrauma and neurodegenerative disease is very promising, there’s still a lot of the basic biology about these cells that we don’t understand. Importantly, this information is necessary to generate optimized grafts that can be used in the clinic for the treatment of individuals living with a spinal cord injury. To address this, Miriam’s project has focused on investigating the effects of developmental restriction on neural progenitor cell (NPC) grafts. Using a model of spinal cord injury, Miriam has examined how the early stage during which NPCs are isolated for transplantation can significantly impact graft composition upon maturation, graft integration with host neural circuitry, and recovery of function. In other words, after a spinal cord injury, connections between the brain and the rest of the body are damaged. We may be able to repair these connections by injecting stem cells, which are immature cells that have the ability to produce many different types of neurons. In order to do this, Miriam’s project is trying to figure out which neurons are needed to make the right connections. For example, if we want to restore walking, we want neurons that will help the brain send signals to the legs. In this way, we hope to help doctors to inject the right type of cells in patients that have suffered from a spinal cord injury, so that their brains can once again communicate with the rest of their body.
In the future, Miriam plans to continue to contribute to our understanding of the nervous system. In her new position, Miriam will use induced pluripotent stem cells and large-scale
genome sequencing to model diseases and investigate therapeutics. As a mentor, she hopes to continue teaching, encouraging, and supporting future scientists and physicians.
To a Future Undergraduate Researcher
When asked if she had any advice for an undergraduate student considering research, she said,
“Know what you’re getting yourself into! Research can be fascinating and fun, but it is also a lot of hard work, so it is important to keep in mind the practical aspects of conducting research. Therefore, after identifying a lab/project of interest to you, you should also consider the following things:
Experimental approach. What will be your daily responsibilities? Will you be working with data, cells, animals, humans, etc.? Also, some experiments require lengthy and tedious work, (ex: months of tissue sectioning or image quantification); is this something you would be willing to do?
Expected workload. How many hours are you expected to be in lab? Will you be working after hours or weekends? How many semesters will be needed to complete your project?
Personal dynamics. Will you be working independently or in a team? Is your immediate supervisor a good fit? What do you require in a mentor?
I find that the most successful undergraduate researchers are those that join a lab having clear and well-defined expectations and that maintain effective communication with their research team and supervisors.”
In summary, we at the Dulin lab want to encourage you to feed your curiosity and Follow The Science!