Biography:

I got my BSc. in Biochemistry at Universidad de La República in Montevideo - Uruguay. My scientific career started while studying the plasticity of uterine nerves in the rat followed by 3 years discovering new adjuvants for vaccine development at the Instituto de Higiene in Montevideo. Because of my experience in immunology I moved to New York City where I worked in a dendritic cell biology laboratory studying the migration of these cells in atherosclerotic plaques of Apo E knockout mice. After a few years I decided to start the PhD studies at New York University. I used this as an opportunity to start something new and I had the luck of being offered a very interesting project using electron microscopy to answer a question about a specific step during the activation process of CD4+ T lymphocytes. By using electron tomography I found that during immunological synapse formation, CD4+ T lymphocytes release T cell receptor - enriched vesicles. These vesicles serve as an intercellular communication device that activate antigen presenting cells in in vitro settings.

At the University of Bern in Switzerland I worked developing new cryo methods to preserve very small cardiomyocyte -fibroblast heterocellular contacts in mouse and human hearts. I performed high pressure freezing on small heart biopsies followed by freeze substitution plus additional round of staining to make the samples suitable for either Serial Block Face - Scanning Electron Microscopy  (SBF - SEM) or electron tomography. Furthermore, I became knowledgeable in the preparation and handling of samples for cryo electron tomography. I learned to use the automated plunge freezing robot for preparing vitrified samples on electron microscopy grids. Finally, I mastered the preparation and collection of vitreous cryosections for analysis of high pressure frozen tissues with cryo electron tomography for cell biology applications.

Research Interests:

• Use of SBF - SEM for generation of 3D datasets to reveal the fine structure of cells and tissues
• Find ways to limit sample charging thus enabling SEM imaging at high vacuum conditions
• Array tomography to generate medium size 3D datasets at high axial and lateral resolution
• Use of deep learning algorithms for segmentation of data from different electron microscopy modalities