Cecilia Riquelme

Skeletal muscle fibers are one of the vertebrate cell types specialized for contraction and they are responsible for voluntary movement. During the myogenesis process, myoblasts exit the cell cycle and began to fuse one to another to form a muscle fiber. During my PhD thesis in Chile, I began to be fascinated in this fundamental process and I had the opportunity to work in a project where we studied the role of the extracellular matrix in controlling the myoblast differentiation process (Dr. Enrique Brandan’s laboratory). Then, in my first 2 years in Boulder I join the Biochemistry Department as a postdoc and I had the chance to pursued the field, now looking at the role of the posttranslationalmodifications by SUMO (small ubiquitin-related molecules) as a putative regulatory mechanism of the activity of several proteins involve in the regulation of the myogenic process (Dr. Xuedong Liu’s laboratory).   The heart is a precise machine formed in essence by another muscle cell type responsible for contraction, as well. Subtle changes in the expression of contractile proteins, blood pressure overload and calcium signaling can alter cardiac function and cause serious heart disease. I am joining the heart group in Dr. Leslie Leinwand’s lab where the goal is to unveil the myocardial hypertrophy signaling. In this context I will be determining the relationship between diet and apoptosis that could aggravate the hypertrophic hearts.

 I believe in my heart, the one that I squeeze to stain in redness the cloth of the life…

I believe in my heart, the one that was increasing in the sowing for the furrow without end…

I believe in my heart, always poured, but never emptied.

(By Gabriela Mistral)