Mariana came from Costa Rica to do her Ph.D. in the laboratory of Prof. Kate Storey at the University of Dundee, in Scotland. There, she studied the cells in the “stem zone” of the neural tube, which provide neural progenitors for the spinal cord. As a postdoc in Bath (England) and in Seville (Spain), she studied the development of the neural crest, a multipotent cell population that contributes to a wide range of tissues in the embryo. Her interest in science communication and policy started during her undergrad degree, and she has combined it with her interest in languages by volunteering as a translator for EuroStemCell. Mariana has recently returned to Costa Rica, where she will set up a zebrafish lab and will also lecture on developmental biology.
