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Who is Francisco "Paco" Andrade?
Research is His Life


Paco was born in Tijuana, Mexico. The funny thing about Tijuana is that everybody knows where it is, but nobody knows anybody from there. Now you do.

Paco always knew he was going to be a scientist, but there was no one in his family that he could go to and ask questions about that kind of work. Science and math were subjects he really liked growing up, but he was not very good at them. Yet, he was very interested in anything to do with medicine. In high school, Paco took a lot of tests that were to help him figure out what to be when he grew up. The tests told him he should think about being a banker (like his dad) or a dentist. The tests did not tell him he should be a scientist.

Going to College
It was in high school that Paco knew he wanted to study medicine and then go do research on medical problems. So for college he went to a medical school at a college that was good in engineering and computers.  Because he wanted to become a scientist, Paco got to take classes in math, physics, computers, and other fun things in addition to the regular medical school classes. He got his degree in 1988.

Learning About Physiology
He blames two of his physiology teachers in medical school for getting him interested in physiology. Both talked about how physiology tries to figure out the whole body, not just a part of it. One of those teachers told Paco he was good enough to work in science and research. The other teacher taught Paco not to believe everything he is told.

Paco then moved to the US to go to school. He got his degree in physiology studying how muscles fatigue (OR: how muscles get tired) at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas in 1994. He went on for more training on how to study muscle function at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX; at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington, KY; and at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, from 1994 to 1998. He also got the chance to spend a year in Sweden at the Karolinska Institute as a guest researcher.

Getting a Job
When thinking about what kind of job he wanted, Dr. Andrade knew he still wanted to do research and not a lot of teaching of big classes with many students. In 1998, he got a job at Case Western Reserve University. Then this summer (2004) he moved back to the University of Kentucky to start a new muscle lab.

Dr. Andrade and the people he works with (because he doesn’t work alone) study how muscles work and change when other things change.  They are trying to figure out the very small muscles that move the eyes and control the voice box. They look at how these muscles and the brain that controls them work when everything is normal and then what happens when things go wrong and the muscles don’t work right.

Doing Research
Dr. Andrade spends most of his day keeping the research going. He makes sure all the projects are working, writes up what happens in the research so other people know about it, finds other people to work with on projects, and looks for ways to get more money to help do more research.  The best thing is that there are some things in the lab that only he can do. So they are his excuse to still be able to work in the lab and not just in his office doing all the other stuff.

Free Time
For fun Dr. Andrade reads, listens to music, and cooks. He is always having to take his kids to soccer, so that takes most of his weekends (and lots of nights too).

He also likes to give talks on science to schools and other groups. This is the type of teaching that he likes most and it doesn’t even feel like work at all.