I am an Associate Professor and Director of the Multiplex Immunofluorescence and Image Analysis Laboratory in the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. I obtained my M.D. from the University of Mayor de San Andres, Bolivia, and I finished my Residence in Pathology at Sao Paulo Medical School, Brazil. Then I obtained my Ph.D. and my first Postdoctoral Fellow at the same University and my second Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center. I was promoted to Research Scientist and, in a short period, to Assistant Professor at the same University. I am a pathologist with a strong background in surgical pathology and research. My main interest is tissue immune profiling and elucidating the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis and progression of cancer, particularly lung cancer. I aimed to accomplish this objective by applying various staining techniques and imaging platforms, including multiplex immunofluorescence and RNAscope, and high-plex imaging platforms, such as CO-Detection by indEXing and multiplexed ion beam imaging. I am also interested in studying the immune response to immunotherapy in longitudinal cancer studies to discover and characterize new biomarkers for future treatment approaches. I have over 15 years of research experience teaching technicians, graduate students, and doctoral and postdoctoral fellows. I also have extensive experience in performing standard laboratory techniques. I authored over 100 articles on lung cancer, interstitial lung diseases in human and animal models, and immune profiling using the various image analysis–based methodologies described above. I have also authored several abstracts and presentations for national and international scientific meetings, book chapters, and reports on pulmonary pathology and other medical topics.
