Episode 18: Maribel Rios, 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 Gabriella Baker, Tenneh Bonsu, Ann Hall, Bella Heintges, Kaitlyn Rodriguez, and Emma Simmons, who also drafted Dr. Rios’ biography. The final editing was by Dr. Adema Ribic. The original recordings are available in Podcasts.

Dr. Maribel Rios is a Professor of Neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine. She completed her Ph.D. at Tufts University and postdoctoral training at MIT. She started her own laboratory at Tufts University in 2002 to study the role of BDNF in the modulation of energy homeostasis and affective behavior. She is the current director of Tufts PREP program and is a recipient of the Sloan Research Fellowship from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Milton and Natalie Zucker Award for Outstanding Faculty Research Achievement.

Dr. Rios, can you tell us about your upbringing and family background?

I am actually originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was born there and grew up there until I was eighteen. My father came from a family of very modest means, and he was the first one in his immediate family to go to college. He was only able to do that because he joined the army and volunteered in the Korean War, and then afterward, through the GI Bill, he was able to go to college. He wanted to go to medical school but couldn’t do that because when he was in college, he already was married and had a young family that he needed to provide for. Because of this, he wanted to provide us with the opportunities that he didn’t have, and he always encouraged us to reach for the highest level of education that we could have. From kindergarten to high school, I went to the same Catholic school called the Santa Monica Academy. I always had a love for neuroscience and when I was in high school, my thinking was that I would go and do my bachelor’s degree and complete pre-med requirements because I wanted to become a neurologist.

Where did go to college, what was that journey like, and how did you land in neuroscience?

I moved from Puerto Rico to Boston, where I attended Boston University as a psychology pre-med major. Boston is a very cosmopolitan city, so it was a fantastic experience. During my sophomore year, I was seriously questioning what my career path should be. The summer after my junior year, I joined a hematology lab at Harvard University. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was still very much interested in neuroscience, but just learning about the scientific method and doing lab research really fascinated me.

How did your own neuroscientific research career start?

I trained as a postdoc at the Whitehead Institute at MIT. I went there to continue doing neuroscience and to hone my skills. It was there that I started studying the brain-derived neurotrophic factor and its role in the mature brain.

Is it easier to succeed in a smaller, more intimate department like Tufts compared to a bigger environment like MIT?

I think it's more about the culture of the place. Being in a place where people want to collaborate and help you is instrumental. My lab uses a lot of electrophysiology in our studies, but I am a molecular biologist. The only reason I have been able to do that is because my colleagues are electrophysiologists. I want to train my students to be very multidisciplinary so when they leave my lab, they have a really impressive tool kit.

What are some of the more important or more recent discoveries from your lab?

Just recently we published that a glutamate receptor mGlur5 cooperates with estrogen signaling to regulate metabolism in females. Our discoveries support the protective mechanism of estrogen in metabolic diseases.

What non-research roles do you have today?

I'm in a million committees, but something that is dear to my heart is that I am the director of the Tufts Postbaccalaureate Research Ed Program (PREP). This is an NIH-funded program geared towards increasing diversity in the biomedical sciences. It's a one-year program where we take promising young trainees and provide them with very intense research experience to facilitate their entry to top Ph.D. or MD/Ph.D. programs. We hope these individuals will be leaders in the field, so if anybody would like to know more, please reach out to me.

Can you describe the intersectionality of your ethnic background and gender throughout your academics and work?

I've been fortunate, but academia is not immune to this kind of situation. When I got an F31 fellowship, one of my fellow students really resented that and let me know. When I got my first R01, I was competing like everybody else, and it was the top score I ever got: 0.6%. It was also the first submission and one of my colleagues said “It's only going to go downhill from here” and he was right! I was sharing the news with somebody who was having trouble getting funded, and he said “I'm convinced that ethnicity has something to do with it,” which was incredibly insulting.

What are some of your hobbies outside of work?

I am an amateur woodworker. I have a shop in the basement of my house. I built a table for my patio. It’s what got me through the pandemic. I’m also a foodie, and I like to cook. I like running. I like to be active and be outdoors. I have Oliver too, he’s my rescue dog. I wasn’t a dog person, but I have quickly become one.

Do you find it difficult to maintain work-life balance, especially for women in science?

I don’t have children, but I have colleagues who do and they get it done. I’m naturally a workaholic. When I turned 40, I started taking the weekends off. The only thing that brings me in is if I have a grant deadline approaching. I take vacations too now-you come back happier and more productive. However, maintaining this balance is ongoing work.

 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.