Episode 15: Maria Soledad-Esposito, PhD

The following interview was conducted in-class, during the Fall 2021 session of Hidden Figures: Brain Science through Diversity, taught by Dr. Adema Ribic at the University of Virginia. What follows is an edited transcript of the interview, transcribed by Sophie Ali, Erva Mangan, Safiye Limon, Elise Nugent, Anna McSherry, Maria Hall, and Morgan Muse, who also drafted Dr. Soledad-Esposito’s biography. The final editing was by Dr. Adema Ribic. The original recordings are available in Podcasts.

Dr. Maria Soledad Esposito received her master’s degree in biology at the University of Buenos Aires in which she wrote her thesis on behavior and critical periods in the motor system. She continued her Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Alejandro Schinder at the Leloir Institute Foundation where her dissertation was focused on adult hippocampal neurogenesis. After graduating she completed a postdoc at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Switzerland. During her postdoc, she worked to characterize the connectivity between the brain and the spinal cord. Her current research is focused on brainstem circuits for motor control and she works in the Medical Physics Department at the Centro Atómico Bariloche Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission.

Do you mind telling us more about your family background?

I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. My mom’s name is Maria Velia Bárbaro. My dad is Miguel Angel Espósito. I come from a middle-class family. My mom worked as a secretary. She went to primary and secondary school, but never went to college. My dad only finished primary school and he was a butcher. I was the first one to go to university in my family.

How was your experience in school, and did you always want to be a scientist?

I completed primary and secondary school (high school) in Buenos Aires. In Argentina, we have the luck and the luxury to have public education. I was a very good student and I really liked to learn, but the teachers were not teaching me science. I didn't have laboratory during my school time, so I didn't understand what science was at all. When I finished secondary school, I wanted to continue studying, but I needed to decide what to do. I really like marine animals and I was going very often to the sea world, so I thought I wanted to be a marine biologist. To study marine biology I decided to study biological science at the University of Buenos Aires, which is ranked as 66th in the world.

Since science was not initially your choice, how did you decide to pursue it later on?

I didn’t really know what science was until I arrived at my first University course that was an introduction to molecular and cellular biology. I had the luck of having Professor Alberto Kombilhtt as the teacher of this course. He is a very known scientist in Argentina for his work on RNA splicing and is even a member of the National Academy of Science from the United States. He is also a great teacher who could transmit his passion and love for science. I really discovered there what science was and I changed my mind. Instead of being outside in nature as a marine biologist, I fell in love with the lab. I discovered with him that science is fun and that I really enjoy the knowledge that science gives you. I realized I enjoy designing experiments and the ability to answer questions and create knowledge. Science is very creative. That was the moment that everything turned.

When did you decide to formally pursue neuroscience?

 When I had to start thinking about my master’s thesis, I was trying to find the place to perform it in and I found a sign for a Cell Biology Lab. I just knocked on the door and I found Dr. Julio Azurra. His lab wasn’t studying cell biology, but neuroscience, and this is how I arrived at neuroscience. I then took courses about the nervous system, physiology, whatever I found in the university to continue my career in neuroscience. My research was studying critical periods in the motor system.

What was the focus of your Ph.D.?

I did my Ph.D. under Dr. Alejandro Schinder, a well-known Argentinian scientist. I studied adult hippocampal neurogenesis at the Leloir Institute Foundation in Buenos Aires. Alejandro had brought with him a new tool at the time (back in 2002) which allowed us to use retroviruses to label adult-born neurons in the hippocampus.

How did you choose where to do your postdoc?

During my Ph.D. studies, I had become interested in circuits neuroscience. I wanted to study the function of the nervous system from a network perspective. I had the luck to be accepted by Sylvia Arber in her laboratory at the Friedrich Miescher Institute. Sylvia is Swiss, she actually did her Ph.D. in Basel at the Friedrich Miescher Institute. She is a very renowned scientist and it is amazing to have the opportunity to work with her. She is a very competitive, ambitious, and intelligent woman.

What sort of work did you begin doing at the postdoc?

We decided to try to characterize the connectivity between the brain and the spinal cord. The spinal cord controls muscular contraction, however, it does not initiate the movement by itself. It needs signals from the brain, and we wanted to understand how this communication happens.

It has been fascinating to hear about your work on brainstem circuits for motor control in our lectures and textbooks. Could you tell us more about it?

What I helped to discover during 10 years of postdoc is that the brainstem has specific pathways that control behaviors. What we still don’t understand how the brainstem communicates with the basal ganglia in order to trigger behaviors.

What made you want to go abroad for your research?

My husband is also a scientist and works in immunology. He got the offer to work on his postdoc in Europe, specifically in Strasbourg, France. He pushed me to go abroad in order to experience how science is done in other countries so I could be exposed to new technology and ideas.

What are some of your hobbies/ life outside of research?

I love being out in nature. My husband and I loved exploring the lakes, and mountains in Switzerland and we also enjoy barbecuing. We also have a daughter named Violeta who was born in 2008. 

 We see that your lab has funding from the USA, France, and Switzerland. All of the sources of funding are from international institutions. Is it common for a lab to have such a global source of funding?

 It is important to have international funding when you work in Argentina because the funding from our government is really low. There is a big difference between the dollar and the Argentinian peso as well, which makes it impossible to order things from the USA. I think I’m lucky because I have international funding and I hope that this funding will allow me to continue doing high-risk projects.    

 This interview was conducted during the Fall Session of UVA’s Hidden Figures class in 2021. 

Class roster: Brink, Julia Elizabeth; Abraham, Carly Elizabeth; Rose, Odell Bayou; Kang, Elizabeth; Posner, Chloe Grace; Luscko, Caroline Ann; Pappagallo, Julia Dominique; Ware, Liza Elizabeth; Murphy, Ryan Martin; Faisal, Zainab; Fastow, Elizabeth; Walker, Mary-Catherine; Petz, Kaitlyn Dorothy; Terblanche, Alexandra Savenye; Nguyen, Katie; Guttilla, Gianna Marie; Hoang, Chloe Nam; Grace, Ann Brown; Smith, Charles Cornelius; Sears-Webb, Delaney Jean; Abed, Jamil; Miao, Julia Stephanie; Johnson, Catherine Anne; Kim, Evalyn; Lee, Sarah; Pietsch, Maggie Malia; Cheng, Kaitlyn Jiaying; Freud, Jordan Maria; Patel, Sonia; Silbermann, Katherine Elizabeth; Lumpkin, Justin; Lemley, Rachel Ann; Hall, Maria Elizabeth; Nugent, Elise Genevieve; Limon, Safiye; Mangan, Erva; Ali, Sophie; Muse, Morgan Noelle; Miley, Sareena Elizabeth; Bennett, Bailey Grace; Mollin, Hannah Beth; Nguyen, Daniel Van; Englander-Fuentes, Emilu Maria; Pest, Marshall Sinclair; Mahuli, Rhea Mina; Chindepalli, Jahnavi; Malyala, Meghana; Weldon, Nathaniel Andreas; Aschmies, Lindsay Elizabeth; Chakrapani, Krithi; Heintges, Bella Grace; Baker, Gabriella Christine; Bonsu, Tenneh Ina; Hall, Ann M; Rodriguez, Kaitlyn; Simmons, Emma Isabela; Davenport, Julia Barrett; Andrews, Tara; Ramirez, Alexa Hidalgo; Petrus, Sarah Anne; Singh, Aanika; Wilson, Sydney Paige; Younan, Krestina. 

TA: Kipcak, Arda. Instructor: Ribic, Adema, PhD.