BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
2
JUNE
2014
BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY
Officers
President
Dorothy Beckett
President-Elect
Edward Egelman
Past-President
Francisco Bezanilla
Secretary
Lukas Tamm
Treasurer
Paul Axelsen
Council
Olga Boudker
Taekjip Ha
Samantha Harris
Kalina Hristova
Juliette Lecomte
Amy Lee
Marcia Levitus
Merritt Maduke
Daniel Minor, Jr.
Jeanne Nerbonne
Antoine van Oijen
Joseph D. Puglisi
Michael Pusch
Bonnie Wallace
David Yue
Biophysical Journal
Leslie Loew
Editor-in-Chief
Society Office
Ro Kampman
Executive Officer
Newsletter
Alisha Yocum
Production
Laura Phelan
Profile
Ellen Weiss
Public Affairs
The
Biophysical Society Newsletter
(ISSN 0006-3495) is published
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Biophysicist in Profile
YADILETTE RIVERA-COLÓN
“
Not everyone is interested
in what you do, so make them
see why it is cool.
”
–
Yadilette Rivera-Colón
As a child growing up in Puerto Rico,
Yadilette Rivera-Colón
was fasci-
nated by science, often watching
Beakman’s World
and
National Geographic
specials on television. Her parents were not involved in science; her mother
stayed at home to care for the children, and her father worked in an auto-
body shop. Both placed a great deal of emphasis on the value of education
for their children. Rivera-Colón explains that, “They always told me to
study, because knowledge is the only thing that no one can take away
from you.”
When Rivera-Colón was just 15 years old, her mother was diagnosed with
leukemia. She passed away soon afterward, but the care provided by her
nurses comforted the family in her final days. Rivera-Colón was touched
by their tender care, and decided to study to become a nurse, to help other
families understand medical procedures and provide comfort within the
hospital setting.
Rivera-Colón trained as a practical nurse at
Escuela Vocacional Benjamin Harrison, a tech-
nical high school. “The more I learned about
the human body and human disease,” she says,
“ the more I wanted to be able to do something
about it.” She thought that as a medical doctor,
she would be able to have a hand in curing
diseases, so she began a pre-med program at
University of Puerto Rico, Cayey.
After studying to become a medical doctor for a few years, Rivera-Colón
decided that she needed to try basic research before committing to a career
in medicine. She took part in a summer program at the University of Mas-
sachusetts, Amherst, where she studied under
Craig Martin
. There she got
a taste of biochemistry and the world of proteins, and decided to pursue a
PhD rather than an MD, so that she could continue to be directly involved
in scientific research.
Rivera-Colón graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey, with
a BS degree in general natural sciences, and committed to attending the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, for her doctoral degree. The summer
before she began graduate school, Rivera-Colón took part in the Biophysical
Society’s Summer Research Program at the University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill. The program was her first introduction to biophysics and was
also the first course she took in English. She says, “I fell in love with bio-
physics and made an amazing network of friends and colleagues who have
supported me every step of the way ever since.” During the course, Rivera-
Colón worked in the lab of
Charles W. Carter, Jr
.
Carter introduced her to
the study of protein structure, which she continues to work on to this day.
Following the BPS summer program, Rivera-Colón began her graduate pro-
gram at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in
Scott C. Garman’s
lab.
While there, she worked on determining the structures of human lysosomal
enzymes that are defective in patients who have lysosomal storage diseases.
