I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile, in a family of German descent. One of the most salient memories of my childhood is how we celebrated Christmas, complete with cookie baking and real candles on a real pine tree in the middle of summer with a scorching heat of up to 30 C. Christmas is indeed a custom of the Northern hemisphere. Growing up I also had a strong connection to the Pacific Ocean with its powerful waves and wonderful seafood bathing the long Chilean coastline. So much so, that when time came to apply to University I seriously considered as one of my options to apply to biology with the intention of becoming a marine biologist. Luckily, I had enough insight to realize that my low resistance to the cold would make me a rather miserable one.

So, I finally chose to apply to medicine, although unlike most of my classmates, I did so with the serious intention of dedicating a significant amount of time to research as part of my practice. Not surprisingly, the medical school curriculum was heavily weighted towards clinical medicine with few opportunities to engage in more basic research. Because of this lack of exposure, I decided to pursue a graduate degree in basic science research. After many emails to several faculty members within the UBC Faculty of Medicine, Cheryl Wellington decided to take a chance and “import me”. I was so very excited to have been given such a great opportunity and at the same time I was scared to leave what had been my home to venture into a foreign country with a foreign language and culture.

My PhD studies, which centered around lipid metabolism in a mouse model of Alzheimer Disease, were some of the most rewarding professional years I have had and Cheryl has continued to be an invaluable mentor and steadfast supporter of my career, even long after my leaving her lab.

After finishing my PhD the plan was to go back to Chile to complete a residency in anatomical pathology. As destiny would want it, a few months before leaving I met my now common-law husband (himself recently imported from Barcelona at that time) and we decided to stay in Canada, which we now consider home. After the long and daunting process of validating my medical degree I matched to my top residency choice: Neuropathology at UBC.

My daughter looking down the portable microscope I used for my Royal College examination in Neuropathology – a pathologist in the making?

I had two daughters during this time and I added two years of research under the supervision of Dr. I. Mackenzie through the UBC Clinician Investigator program, which made my residency longer than usual. I am now a junior neuropathologist at VGH and I am slowly launching my own line of research in neuropsychiatric diseases, and if someone would have told me that my office would be down the hall from the resident’s room on my first day at VGH, I would not have believed them.