BBRC Scientist is First at UTEP to Receive NIH Research Development Award
Last Updated on March 05, 2018 at 12:00 AM
Originally published March 05, 2018
By Pablo Villa
UTEP Communications
For Anita Quintana, Ph.D., one of the draws of working at The University of Texas at El Paso is what the campus offers students.
The assistant professor in UTEP’s Department of Biological Sciences said she was initially impressed with the number of programs undergraduates had at their disposal to get involved in research. It was one of several facets of the Border Biomedical Research Center that spurred her move to El Paso in 2015.
“I just thought there were tremendous options for undergraduate students,” Quintana said. “That was really important to me because that’s how I got my start in science. I was really impressed by the BBRC in that it has a lot of core facilities. Students have access to tremendous opportunities here.”
Students aren’t the only ones.
Quintana’s own research work has been able to flourish since she started at UTEP nearly three years ago. It has culminated with the news late last year that she is the recipient of a National Institutes of Health research scientist development award.
The grant, known as a K01, from the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is part a cross disciplinary research program and is worth $700,932 during a three-year period. The money will bolster Quintana’s research utilizing zebrafish as a model organism to understand the molecular basis of developmental disorders through an understanding of how specific genes regulate normal development and disease.
The current aim of Quintana’s work is to try to understand what happens during development to cause children to be born with birth defects. More specifically, she is looking at birth defects that affect neurological and craniofacial development. Quintana begins by studying human patients that have these diseases and disorders. She combines the genetic studies conducted on these patients with developmental biology studies using zebrafish.
“That same gene or similar gene that is mutated in the human patient, we find its parallel gene in zebrafish,” Quintana said. “Then, we look to see what happens in the fish when we delete that gene or we cause a mutation in that gene. So, we hope that by studying the cells and the responses in the fish that we can understand what might be happening during human development.”
Aside from being a compact, cost-effective option, Quintana said she works with zebrafish because they externally fertilize their eggs. That allows her to analyze development from a single cell to a complete organism, a process that takes five days.
“So, everything that happens in nine months in a human being we are seeing much more rapidly,” Quintana said. “All those mechanisms — how to form a heart, how to form a brain or kidneys — those mechanisms in the fish are very similar to what happens in a human. So, I think that zebrafish are a very powerful way to study developmental diseases.”
This is a highly significant award, said Robert Kirken, Ph.D., dean of the College of Science.
“This award is a testament not only to what Anita has done so far, but what she is poised to do in the future,” Kirken said. “These grants support scientists who are not only committed to research but are also identified by the NIH as young professors who should be given access to advanced laboratory training and additional experience.”
For her part, Quintana is grateful for the recognition. But she said the honor is not hers alone. She credits the assistance of her primary mentor, Michael Kenney, Ph.D., associate dean for research for the College of Science, among others for her success.
“It’s a little bit of disbelief but, of course, I’m happy,” she said. “I’m excited because, to get this, you really have to have mentors, training and support from your department and your institution. I can’t say this was completely done by me. It was quite a significant process. So, overall, I just feel like all of UTEP at multiple levels allowed me to succeed.”
One of those mentors who has helped along the way is Bruce Cushing, Ph.D.
Cushing is chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and was on the committee that hired Quintana. As such, he has seen her grow since her arrival at UTEP. Cushing said Quintana is part of a group of junior faculty members who have been as “selfless as any group I’ve ever been a part of.”
But what stands out about Quintana, Cushing said, is her adaptability and willingness to listen to her seasoned colleagues. Cushing aided Quintana during the grant application process, lending his experience as a program manager at the National Science Foundation.
The result was the first K01 award received by a UTEP professor. Cushing said it is not only momentous because it hasn’t happened at UTEP before, but because Quintana had to compete with the rest of the country for the grant. It isn’t an award reserved for minority-serving institutions.
“It’s prestigious because it’s the NIH saying that this is someone who has potential to develop into a really strong, independent scientist,” Cushing said. “But they also recognize the skillset of the mentors that are going to help her. I think it’s an all-around great thing that speak volumes about her and where she’s going to go.
“She really represents the kind of opportunity we have here. At one point, we had 13 junior faculty. Of those 13, 11 were able to get significant funding. We have an incredible core, and she’s representative of that. She’s bringing that interdisciplinary flavor to research; I like the desire to reach out and expand her research area. That’s the kind of thing grant agencies are looking for.”
And that information is duly noted for Quintana. She is already in the midst of preparations to compete for a bigger NIH award.
“My plan is already to submit for larger grant this year,” she said. “So, I’m already working on next step. We definitely do not want to slow down.”