BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
3
JUNE
2014
She recently completed her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology. During her time in graduate
school, Rivera-Colón found that the most rewarding aspect of her work was seeing her students
succeed in achieving their personal and professional goals. Garman says of Rivera- Colón, “Her
enthusiasm and support for the undergraduates she mentored led them to working as a well-oiled
machine. She showed me how you can trust good undergraduates to be independent, and then
watch them take personal responsibility for their projects.”
Emily Schutsky
worked in Garman’s lab as an undergraduate student, and Rivera-Colón served as
her graduate student mentor during her time there. Rivera-Colón had a big impact on Schutsky’s
own decision to pursue her PhD. “From working with her for two years,” Schutsky explains, “I
was really able to experience first-hand how much she loved science, but even more than that,
how she channeled that passion towards impacting others and inspiring young people to pursue
degrees and careers in science, no matter their background.”
Because of her interest in and dedication to teaching, Rivera-Colón pursued a postdoctoral posi-
tion in the Penn-Postdoctoral Opportunities in Research and Teaching (Penn-PORT) Program at
the University of Pennsylvania. She was accepted into this program, and is now training in
Ronen
Marmorstein’s
lab at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsyl-
vania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Her current project focuses on understanding the structural
and biochemical properties of N-terminal acetyltransferases. She explains that, “these enzymes
play a regulatory role in different biological processes, some of which are involved in cell prolifera-
tion, and defects in this pathway result in cancer. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms for the
different members of this enzyme family can aid the development of novel molecular probes and
therapeutic compounds.”
Next year, she will begin teaching undergraduate students in addition to continuing her research. Up
to this point, Rivera-Colón has trained undergraduate researchers in small groups, but soon she will
be teaching a large introductory course. She says that this will challenge her to develop a new set of
teaching skills, which she will need to achieve her long-term goal of becoming a faculty member at
an undergraduate institution. Rivera-Colón says, “Many undergraduate students from small schools
that are not near research universities do not really know what research is. I hope to one day be able to
train at least a few undergraduate students in basic laboratory techniques and how to read and access
scientific literature.”
Rivera-Colón recognizes that her goals are a bit atypical, but this does not diminish her dedication to
undergraduate education. Few of her peers and mentors have supported her decision to pursue this
path. “
Barry Lentz
supported me since we met in the [Biophysical Society] summer course,” she says,
“He was one of two faculty, with my PhD advisor Scott Garman, to encourage me to pursue a career
in undergraduate education. Many people tried to discourage me from doing it because they think I
could do ‘better.’ As flattering as that may sound, what is better than educating future researchers?”
The biggest challenge Rivera-Colón has faced so far has been understanding what was expected of her
each step of the way. “The idea of scientific training is to prepare trainees for a research career, but
aside from classes, there is never a concrete set of expectations for graduate students or postdocs…in
my experience, you play it by ear until you get it, and those who don’t, drop out of graduate school.”
This lack of clearly defined expectations led Rivera-Colón to put the highest possible standards on
herself, which has made her journey more difficult. “If more advisors established a basic set of expecta-
tions for researchers on the first day of training, there would be a lot more success stories in science.
The future of science depends on proper science education,” Rivera-Colón says.
Rivera-Colón understands that an important part of science education is informing those outside of
the scientific community about the value of research. “Only a small amount of people will read your
awesome paper because no matter how interesting it is, scientific work is often very specialized,” she
explains, “Not everyone is interested in what you do, so make them see why it is cool.”
Rivera-Colón with students Sarah
Tarullo, Emily K. Schutsky, and Shaul
Kushinsky at the UMass Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology Awards ceremony.
Profilee At-A
Glance
Institution:
Abramson Family Cancer
Research Institute at the
University of Pennsylva-
nia Perelman School of
Medicine
Research Area:
Understanding the molecu-
lar mechanisms of human
N-acetyl-transferase activity
in cellular processes.
