Growing up in Mexico City, the third of four children, Marina Ramirez-Alvarado was amongst the first generation of her family to attend college. Now a well-established Professor of Biochemistry/Molecular Biology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, Marina did not always dream of becoming a scientist, “I had a very unceremonious start in science,” she says “when I was a teenager, I wanted to be a travel agent because I loved traveling and I didn’t travel very much as a kid.”
A talent for science and a desire to tackle world hunger eventually led Marina to study biochemistry at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México with an emphasis on food chemistry. During her second year of college, Marina began research working in protein biochemistry after discovering the wide diversity of their activities. It was at that point that she fell in love with proteins.
It was not until she started a Master’s program in Biotechnology, focusing on protein engineering, that Marina began doing biophysics. At that time she worked on molecular dynamic simulations, homology modeling, and docking. Later, during her PhD studies, Marina advanced to doing experimental biophysics combining recombinant DNA technologies with techniques like circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).
“For the longest time, I didn’t consider myself a biophysicist, I considered myself a protein engineer, a protein designer, a protein folder or a protein misfolder. Then one day, Frank Rusnak [the scientist who initially recruited Marina to the Mayo Clinic] called me a protein chemist and I realized that was a good generic way to call me. Then somebody called me a biophysicist and I realized that biophysics was not just the study of membrane proteins and ion channels…I have been really interested in the quantitative, physicochemical aspects of proteins for a very long time (23 years, to be exact). I have always loved math and I love the way it helps us understand the world. All this gives me good reasons to call myself a biophysicist.”
Today, Marina’s work focuses on misfolding and amyloid formation in light chain amyloidosis. The overall goal of her research laboratory is to understand the molecular basis of this disease, where proteins clump around organs causing the organs to stop working, to ultimately find ways to ameliorate the organ damage it causes and eventually find new therapeutic strategies to improve organ function and quality of life for patients and increase overall survival. According to Marina, “We are trying to figure out how the proteins start the process of clumping to try to identify anti-clumping medicine so that our patients can take it and get better and eventually be cured of the disease.”
Silvia Cavagnero, a longtime friend and fellow scientist working on protein folding and aggregation in the cell, says of Marina “she is a very energetic young voice in the amyloid field. Her approach is unique, in that she has been one of the very few people able to synergistically combine fundamental biophysics (seeking atomic-resolution knowledge) with clinical studies. In short, Marina want to get the whole story: from understanding from how molecules work at the microscopic level all the way to developing cures that actually save lives. Marina is also a fantastic human being. Once you have met her once, you will never forget about her energy and optimism!” Aside from being raised by parents who placed a high value education, Marina also credits a number of mentors and teachers for helping and supporting her along her path. When discussing her mentors, Marina says, “My mentors have come from different backgrounds but they all wanted me to succeed. They all believed in me… They put energy and effort into teaching me what I needed at the different stages in my career. They respected me as an individual and gave me my space to work at my own rhythm. More than a common background, I think that my mentors came from a common philosophy of mentoring. I was very lucky to find them because I really didn’t look for them for that reason.” Among her many mentors, Marina has keen memories of Miss Amelia, her 3rd-grade teacher who encouraged her. Her Middle-School principal Julio Fernandez used to call her his “boxing manager” due to her energetic and feisty nature. Lynne Regan who was her postdoctoral advisor at Yale University fostered her independence and taught her that devotion to family is a good thing and, in addition to dedication to science, it has great benefits on the level of personal work/life satisfaction. Surprisingly, Tim Stepanek, the first amyloidosis patient that Marina met in the course of her studies, also played a mentoring role in Marina’s life. Tim taught Marina how one can fight adversities with dignity, and really believed in her ability to find a cure for his deadly disease.
In addition to finding her research to improve the lives of patients rewarding, Marina also derives satisfaction from her work as an instructor. She revels in the moments when she is teaching a member of her lab or a student in the classroom something new and difficult then suddenly, “seeing the light bulb go off when they get it.” In this way, Marina is able to give back as she was given by numerous mentors throughout her career. “Mentoring provides me with as much opportunity to learn as it does to teach. It is extremely rewarding to witness how these young adults begin to connect the dots and figure things out all by themselves. When my students and technicians start to come up with their own ideas, then I know they are growing as scientists. As I usually tell my team members, my goal is for all of them to know more than I do, to think critically, and to be able to answer questions about the things we are studying together, and I want these young adults to feel free to accomplish all these things in their own way. Science and teaching aren’t the only things that Marina excels at though. Currently, she is in the process of obtaining her Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, a martial art she practices alongside her son, Dan. And when she isn’t kicking butt in the lab or dojo, Marina participates in a number of interesting hobbies including singing and playing guitar in a band, fossil and rock collecting, water coloring, cooking, and training for triathlons.
Despite never becoming a travel agent, Marina’s desire for travel never disappeared. On one hand, her mind travels every day through the creative paths of scientific discovery. On the other, Marina and her family love to go on outdoors adventures together, both locally and to interesting places around the world, stopping in Mexico at least once per year.
Marina is thankful for the support and encouragement she received from the numerous mentors that have helped and inspired her along the way, including Homero Hernández, Agustín López-Munguía, Xavier Soberón Mainero, Luis Serrano, Lynne Regan, Frank Rusnak, Grazia Isaya, and many others.