Nidiane Carla Martinelli

As under graduated student I had the opportunity to work with stem cells and epilepsy during my internship with Dr. Jaderson Costa-da-Costa. In this project we evaluated the memory improvement by mesenchymal stem cells treatment. As a Master student I have developed the physiological model of cardiac hypertrophy induced by exercise in Balb/c mice. At that time Dr. Luis Rohde and his team trained me on echocardiography examination in rodents, especially in mice. Also, I was the first one to study microRNAs expression association with cardiovascular system in our Laboratory and since that at least more 6 different projects have started to unravel the microRNAs role in heart failure and heart hypertrophy. In addition, I successfully collaborated with other researchers as Dr. Nadine Clausell and produced peer-reviewed publications from each project. Moreover, during the development of my Master dissertation I started collaboration with Dr. Ursula Matte who became my PhD advisor. In my PhD project I compared microRNAs expression between physiological and pathological hypertrophy. During my fellow at Heart Failure Discovery Performance Unit at GlaxoSmithKline (2014) I learned more about heart failure biology and cardiac adaptation and this helped me to acquire more knowledge in cardiomyocytes and human iPS cell culture. During my time in the United States as J-1 visa holder in 2014, I was subjected to the two-year home residency requirement (section 212(e) on immigration regulations) meaning I could not change status in the U.S., or get work or family-based visa status such L2 until February 2017. I got a waiver from the US Department of State in September 2016 and my L2 visa in February 2017 when I applied to an Employment Authorization Card (EAD) giving me the final approve to legally work in the United States since April 2017. This is the reason I have a gap between my PhD conferral and my postdoctoral training under the supervision of Dr. Mark Sussman at San Diego State University starting in June 2017. Although, it has been a short period of time in Dr. Sussman?s laboratory, I already notice the progress I am making towards to become a better scientist in terms of experimental approaches and designs, data analysis and critical thinking. I feel I have such more to learn and develop until I am truly prepared to achieve my life goal as an independent researcher in the cardiovascular field and being a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Sussman?s laboratory will undoubtedly prepare me for that.