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Hector is the 2^nd child of seven brothers born in Mexico City into a family of composers and musicians. His father, a noted violinist, studied medicine and became a plastic surgeon to support his large family. Although he gave up professional performing, he never stopped playing the violin. So Hector grew up surrounded by the harmonies of music, medicine, and a large family.

Dealing With Being Sick
Hector became ill with severe asthma when he was a very young boy. His asthma was compounded by allergies to many foods, animals, and dust. Consequently, he grew up in a protective environment with many restrictions. Despite precautions, Hector was rushed to the hospital several times because of the life-threatening attacks.

Hector accommodated to these limitations by learning to play the piano and write music and by developing a very keen interest in understanding how the human body works. Christmas presents at the Rasgado household through the years were often microscopes, telescopes, or biological models. As young teenagers, the Rasgado brothers founded an “Institute of Sciences” at their house and carried out experiments in chemistry and biology and on rockets.  Hector combined his interests by studying piano performance, composition, and medicine. In the early 1960s, asthma inhalers became available in Mexico. Their use became a turning point in Hector’s life, stopping the emergency room visits and allowing him to get on with his life.

He then moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States and joined a physiology laboratory at the University of Maryland to pursue a Ph.D. degree in Physiology, which he received in 1984. Dr. Rasgado studied calcium in different types of organelles, like mitochondria. He stayed working in that same laboratory after receiving his degree. They did research on the exchange of sodium and calcium ions in the plasma membrane of muscle cells. This work led to him being able to work with other physiologists who were working on similar or related problems. In 1988, Dr. Rasgado was asked to join the Dept. of Physiology at the Chicago Medical School. There he works on the regulation of magnesium and calcium ions inside cells and volume regulation in muscle cells.

Dr. Rasgado has worked with the American Physiological Society’s International Physiology Committee to help physiologists in Mexico and Latin and South America to have a chance to learn about the newest physiology work by going to meetings in their own country that are paid for in part by APS. Physiologists from the US go to those meetings to give talks and it gives everyone a chance to learn about each other’s research. He came up with this idea and has worked hard over the last few years to make the program successful. 

Being the father of three active young children, Dr. Rasgado-Flores hopes that he will be able to instill in them the passion for science and music that was nurtured in him by his family. After all, being a physiologist and a musician are just two approaches to a common quest: To live life to the fullest and to try to give back a bit of pleasure and knowledge to our fellow men.

Writing a symphony
For the International Physiology Meeting held in 2005 in San Diego, Dr. Rasgado and his brother wrote a symphony about the body and physiology called "Body Notes" that was performed for the first time during the meeting. To hear parts of the concert, click here and then go to "CD of Symphony Body Notes."