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 were no role models in his family for this career. Science and math
were topics of great interest to him growing up, although he was not
particularly good at either of them. However, he was fascinated by all
things medical. During high school, Paco took a battery of tests to define
career alternatives. He remembers one option was banker (like his dad),
and another was dentist. Scientist was not one of the options. That didn’t
stop him though.
College Years
Early on, Paco decided that he was going to study
medicine and then get into biomedical research. So when it came time to
chose a college, he selected the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios
Superiores de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico, which is a medical school in
a university that is known for its strong program in engineering and
computer science. So, in addition to the regular medical school
curriculum, he got the opportunity to take classes in more advanced math
and statistics, physics, computer programming, and assorted fun things
that were very useful later on in graduate school. He graduated in 1988
with his Bachelor of Medicine degree.
Learning About Physiology
Paco blames two of his physiology teachers in medical
school for his interest in physiology. Both teachers made it clear how
physiology seeks to understand a system (it is “integrative”, to use the
codeword du jour) not just a small component of it. In addition, one of
the teachers showed Paco that working in science and research was an
attainable goal. The other teacher taught him that he should not believe
everything he’s told.
Paco then decided to move to the US to go to graduate
school. He got his Ph.D. in physiology studying how muscles fatigue at the
University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas in 1994.
He continued his training on how to study muscle function by taking
postdoctoral positions 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 had
the opportunity to spend a year (1996-1997) in Sweden at the Karolinska
Institute as a guest investigator.
Finding a Job
When it came time to look for a position, Dr. Andrade
had to decide what kind of career he wanted to have, His childhood dream
of becoming a biomedical researcher was still strong, so he chose to
pursue only those jobs that were at research-intensive institutions, which
had less of an emphasis on large-group teaching. In 1998, he accepted a
position back at Case Western Reserve University as an Assistant Professor
in the Department of Neurology. This spring (2004) he accepted a new job
and moved again this summer to the Department of Physiology at the
University of Kentucky.
Muscle Research
Dr. Andrade and his colleagues (because he doesn’t
work alone) study how muscles work and adapt to changing conditions. Most
of their projects focus on trying to understand the inner workings of very
specialized muscles: the muscles that move the eyes (extraocular muscles)
and the muscles that control the larynx or voice box. This research takes
them from the function of normal muscles and their central controller (the
brain) to diseases that target different steps of the process.
Running a Lab
Most of Dr. Andrade’s time is spent on keeping the
research operation going. He coordinates projects, writes grant proposals
and manuscripts, and sustains collaborations. There are some specialized
techniques that only he can do. They function as his excuse to stay close
to the lab bench. There is also an administrative load that comes with
extramural funding: budgets and personnel issues that need to be managed
in conjunction with departmental and institutional administrators,
regulatory issues, and the like.
Free Time
For fun Dr. Andrade reads, listens to music, and
cooks. He’s a full-time soccer dad, so that consumes more of his weekends
(and some weeknights) than he cares to count (his wife keeps telling him
that he’s obligated by law to do that). When he thinks about it, driving
kids around can be very relaxing.
He also enjoys doing some outreach work for the
university, mainly science-related talks to schools and civic groups. This
is the type of teaching that he enjoys the most, and he doesn’t consider
it work.
Advice for an Graduate Student
Once you’ve decided that physiology is the way to go
(and it is), the next step should be to plan a career path that includes
the skills developed during graduate school. And I don’t mean a collection
of lab skills only. Do you want to go into academia? Industry? Government?
Figure out what you need to be successful in the selected field. Start
early and revise frequently as experience accumulates.
Recent Publications
Andrade, F.H., A.P.
Merrian, W. Guo, G. Cheng, C.A. McMullen, K. Hayes, P.F.M. van der Ven,
and J.D. Porter. Paradoxical absence of M lines and creatine kinase in
mouse extraocular muscle.
J. Appl.
Physiol. 205:692-699, 2003.
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