Kiara was born and raised in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, where she obtained her bachelor’s in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez before applying for graduate school. Presently, she is a 4th year Neuroscience PhD student at Baylor College of Medicine who nurtures the overly ambitious goal to become a polymath of the neurosciences. At BCM, she is a happy member of the Daoyun Ji Lab: a systems neuroscience lab that mainly uses tetrode recordings in freely moving rats and mice in order to answer questions about how the brain encodes, stores, and uses information pertaining to episodic memory (i.e. memory of an experience); their principal region of interest is the hippocampus: a subcortical structure essential for learning, spatial navigation, and memory.
Currently, most of Kiara's intellectual resources, efforts, and time are being poured into her thesis project, which studies the synaptic plasticity underlying Contextual Fear Memory (CFM) acquisition and subsequent mnemonic processes (e.g. retrieval, sleep-mediated consolidation, etc).
Contextual Fear memory is a memory of a context associated with an aversive experience, which, in the case of her mice, is the memory of a spot on a track where they get a mild foot shock. The connections that allow communication between neurons are termed synapses and synaptic plasticity refers to the changes in strength of these connections: a synapse can either be strengthened through a mechanism called long-term potentiation or weakened through long-term depression. She is interested in the changes in strength that occur in a specific bundle of hippocampal connections known to be important for CFM acquisition: the famous Schaffer collateral synaptic pathway (i.e. projections from the CA3 hippocampal region to the CA1 hippocampal region).
By recording both neuronal spikes (i.e. action potentials) and local field potentials (LFPs or the sum of the activity of many cells) through implanted tetrodes, she can analyze electrophysiological measurements such as field excitatory post-synaptic potentials (i.e. fEPSPs) and spiking probability as proxy indicators of synaptic transmission strength. Since changes in these measurements reflect the changes in strength of the connections upstream of the cells being recorded, we can capture evidence of the type of synaptic plasticity that occurs in Schaffer collaterals as the animal acquires, retrieves, and consolidates CFM. Overall, Kiara studies how connections between two key populations of hippocampal neurons change in order to recruit memory-eligible cells to encode a specific type of episodic memory and mediate other CFM-related memory processes.
What has been a great inspiration that catalyzed your interest for neuroscience?
The first time I remember my interest being piqued by the study of the nervous system was during a 6th grade science class. The topic proved interesting enough for me to stop reading the manga book I had hidden under my desk; the idea that this biological system was the main enabler of my capacity for thoughts, dreams, speech, consciousness, desires, etc. shocked me into my first curious urge to understand this most mysterious and powerful biological system.
This initial urge slowly developed into a self-perpetuating and philosophical fascination with the human nervous system as the years went by, culminating in my decision to pursue a PhD in Neuroscience when I was in 11th grade. This decision was encouraged by the exciting and enlightening opportunity of attending a Neuroscience Fair at my High School held by members of Dr. Gregory Quirk’s lab at the “Recinto of Ciencias Medicas” in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I am forever grateful to them for that experience, which ultimately crystallized my ambition to pursue the understanding of the nervous system through scientific research. I find the study of the nervous system omni-relevant, exceptionally useful, and the undying curiosity it inspires has motivated me to become its lifelong student.
What is the best/coolest/most inspirational fact you learned in neuroscience? Why?
(Oh, dear, asking the hard questions…) Yikes, let’s see.
I think I’ll go with neuroplasticity because I can’t decide which tidbit of knowledge about neuro is the coolest, best, or most inspirational. But I think neuroplasticity is pretty high up on the list.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the nervous system to change and adapt in response to experience. I chose this phenomenon because, not only is it unfathomably useful to all entities that possess a nervous system, but because it is exceptionally evolved in humans, has been essential to our survival, and integral to our sociocultural and intellectual development as a species.
I believe one cannot overestimate the role neuroplasticity plays in every aspect of the human experience, both in the case of the individual and in the case of the collective. Consider: your brain is not the same as the brain that began reading this page because at every level (i.e. molecular, cellular, synaptic, circuit-wise) your nervous system is changing structurally and functionally in response to the stimuli of every experience, including reading this! Your brain can learn, think, heal in huge part thanks to this capacity. And I think that’s one of the most outrageously cool things ever.
Neuroscientist-in-training
I agree, that is absolutely fascinating. What other personal interests (writing, music, art, etc.) have you utilized to combine with your interest in science? How has it affected your work?
My love of the arts (like music, painting, literature, theater, etc) has influenced my behavior and thoughts in countless ways, but I’d have to say that writing has been the most pervasive passion in my life besides neuroscience.
I am in the (much dragged out) process of creating a literary and pedagogical blog which will focus on neuroscience and on my personal human experiences titled “Portrait of a Human Brain”. I hope working on it will help me hone my science communication skills as well as my creative writing skills while enriching my knowledge and deepening my understanding of both neuroscience and myself.
Beside that little passion project, I have a keen interest in communicating science in general. During undergrad I was a selected writer for a science communication initiative (https://www.cienciapr.org/blogs/uprm-science-communication-initiative), and I’m currently an NPR Scicommer with several ideas for articles focusing on advocating for science policy and mental health.
Given that research requires a lot of writing, it may be considered an advantage that I’m so keen on writing about science, but I must confess that I disdain the format of technical writing that academic research requires to communicate knowledge. The scientific literature is sometimes so stale, without any pulse, that a lot of the time it’s a taxing chore to read or write like an academician.
What are some major obstacles you encountered as a woman going into STEM?
I have been extraordinarily fortunate in that respect. I have encountered absolutely no obstacles due to my being a woman during my academic trajectory in STEM, that I can recall. Struggling with a mental illness, however, has been the biggest challenge and deterrent to my progress in grad school and life in general.
Knowing that STEM is a demanding field, what do you do to stay motivated?
There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than a PhD in Neuroscience. That helps. But what has also been beyond helpful for me is: having a support group, therapy, medication, exercise, and developing resilience against stress and failure with the help of all of the above. To keep motivated, I would also advise to avoid isolation and get involved with initiatives or groups and organizations outside of the lab or doing fun things with your lab. Also, go to science meetings and seminars of interest (most of the times these give me a reviving boost of enthusiasm for science).
What advice would you give to any STEM student?
Persevere. Choose your lab carefully; you should like the research, but you should also like the people in the lab. And think very hard about the type of mentoring that suits you; a bad match between you and our PI can ruin more than your PhD experience.
Be prepared to fail, but always try to learn something from each failure, and keep this in mind: every PhD experience is unique. There are no two grad students that undergo the same trajectory or process during their time in grad school. You do you and try your best to learn as much as you can about whatever fascinating subject you’re studying. Also, nurture hobbies and passions outside of research and remember to rest regularly. Burnout is the enemy. And, once again and always: persevere.
Interviewer's Takeaway:
I am absolutely astounded to see the amount of knowledge and passion that exudes from this interview. Throughout this discussion, I found the way Kiara describes neuroscience captivating; it brings a sense of intellectual mystery that could ignite the interest of many prospective STEM students.
As Kiara says, that mysterious element shows up when students enter professional STEM fields; different grad students experience distinctive, unique circumstances. That being said, mystery shouldn't prove STEM to be a too daunting task: on the contrary, the fact that every person has different experiences provides the consolation that comparing yourself to others is always inaccurate; you are good enough.
Please check out Kiara's work!
Follow her on
twitter: @kiara_bellido
IG: @curiouslyalive
References:
Figure 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5193145/
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