Bio
Luz Milbeth Cumba Garcia is a third-year Immunology Ph.D. student at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (MCGSBS) in Rochester, MN. Originally from Puerto Rico, Luz graduated in 2012 from the Universidad Metropolitana with a Bachelor’s Degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology, where she performed studies on HIV epidemiology that resulted in two publications.
Luz has conducted research in different countries including Brazil, Germany with the Nobel Laureate Harald zur Hausen, and Spain at the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine Lopez Neyra. In 2013, Luz obtained her Master’s Degree from this institution. Her thesis project was recently published in the journal Nature-Scientific Reports. In 2014 she taught basic science skills to college students in China before being recruited to Mayo Clinic’s Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP/PostBac).
She has been working at Mayo Clinic for 4 years now. During her first year at Mayo, Luz worked with Dr. Marina Ramirez Alvarado on amyloidosis disease. Then, she transitioned to the lab of Dr. Aaron Johnson where she worked on acute neuroinflammatory diseases, which resulted in two publications. She is currently working with Dr. Ian Parney, analyzing the molecular signature of plasma extracellular vesicles shed from glioblastoma tumors. She also has an interest in science policy and regulatory affairs. She enjoys traveling, shopping, writing on her blog and exercising.
