Valeria Vásquez was raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Her father is a geologist and shared his love of science with her starting when she was very little. “I could listen forever to him talk about every single mountain formation while we were on road trips in Venezuela,” she shares. Vásquez also admires her mother, who worked with underprivileged children throughout her career as a kindergarten teacher. Vásquez became enamored with the scientific process as an elementary school student. “My school held a yearly science festival where we had to work in teams to develop a scientific project that would be presented at the end of each year,” she says. “My best friend’s mother, who was an engineer, chaperoned us throughout the year and taught us how to apply the scientific method. Formulating hypotheses and designing experimental plans hooked me immediately.”
Vásquez completed her undergraduate studies at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. She then went on to pursue her PhD in the lab of Eduardo Perozo at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, completing her studies in 2008.
While she was working in Perozo’s lab, Vásquez met José Faraldo-Gómez and Sudha Chakrapani, with whom she has remained friends over the years. Vásquez served as Faraldo-Gómez’s mentor while he did wet lab work for a short time in Perozo’s lab. “Valeria is an outstanding scientist with an excellent training in biophysics and biochemistry—but she is also a wonderful person with a very positive disposition and the right temperament for a career in science,” he says. “What I remember the most about spending time with her in the lab is how careful, thoughtful, and hardworking she is. [Also] her homemade arepas are phenomenal, particularly combined with copious amounts of Rioja.”
Chakrapani recalls her time working with Vásquez fondly. “Valeria was a lot of fun to work with. She is a well-rounded person, brilliant, meticulous, and extremely passionate about science, politics, and her family,” she says. “She is very insightful, full of new ideas, and absolutely relentless when it comes to trying new approaches to study a very difficult scientific problem.” For her postdoctoral research, she worked in the lab of Miriam B. Goodman at Stanford University. “We identified arachidonic acid-containing phospholipids as crucial modulators of touch sensitivity inC. elegans touch receptor neurons,” Vásquez says.
She is now an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. “My current research is centered on understanding ion channel function of mechanosensitive channels using two main avenues: (1) in vivo approaches to study the effect of bioactive lipids on channel function using the animal model C. elegans, and (2) in vitro biochemical and biophysical approaches to elucidate the mechanisms of ion channel activation and identify lipids that directly modulate their function,” she explains.
Vásquez credits several people in her life for helping lead her to this particular area of study. The first was her husband, Julio Cordero-Morales. “Since we were in college he was — and still is — super passionate about ion channels and excitable cells. He would always tell our trainees, ‘There is nothing more exciting than looking at an enzyme to work in real time,’ like we do when we patch clamp,” she says. “My friend and collaborator Boris Martinac taught me how to patch clamp spheroplasts while studying mechanosensitive ion channels. My PhD advisor Eduardo Perozo taught me that without dynamics, structures are just snapshots. Miriam Goodman taught me that the in vivo context always matters.”
The most rewarding aspect of her work is the sharing and exchange of information. “I get to learn from everyone, whether they are in my field or not,” she explains. “What I like the most is discussing ideas with labmates and colleagues to challenge and/or postulate hypotheses. It is very rewarding to find something new and exciting, whether it goes with or against my hypothesis.” Vásquez faced challenges related to her work– family balance during her postdoctoral fellowship. “The biggest challenge so far was coming back to the lab after a two-month maternity leave.
Not because I did not want to come back, but it was difficult to leave my son at daycare after only two months and think straight while being sleep deprived,” she shares. “In spite of this, I was lucky I could count on my husband. We worked as a team to enjoy our family and still be productive in the lab.” Her advisor, Goodman, was also a support during this time. “When I told her I was pregnant she gave me a good piece of advice: plan the experiments you want to do for 10–12 months after you come back from your maternity leave and have everything written so you can execute your plans straightforwardly,” Vásquez recalls.
In Vásquez and Cordero’s quest to maintain two successful careers, Vásquez has found role models in another married couple running a lab together: Lily Jan and Yuh Nung Jan. “The way their research lines complement each other, ion channel function and neuronal development, is quite amazing,” she says. “One of the quotes in Yuh Nung Jan’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute profile has always fascinated me, especially because my husband and I started our lab a couple of years ago, after receiving our postdoctoral training in somatosensation with the goal of studying ion channel structure-function, electrophysiology, and behavior: ‘It is relatively rare in science that two researchers complement each other in ability and in temperament such that the sum of the collaboration is more than the two parts.’”
The Biophysical Society has been a supportive community for Vásquez over the years. “The Society has given me the opportunity to collaborate and publish with people who otherwise I would not have met. The Annual Meeting is the ideal setting to broadcast the science we do in our lab and to find and nurture long-term collaborators and friends,” she says. “The first time I went, I felt overwhelmed because I did not know anyone and everything was too new and exciting. Now, it feels as if I’m going to a family reunion. I use the meeting every year to boost my enthusiasm and recharge my batteries.” She has met many other Latin American scientists at Biophysical Society meetings and became involved with SOBLA, the Sociedad de Biofísicos Latino Americanos, a group with the goal of strengthening biophysics in Latin America.
Outside of work, Vásquez loves to spend time with her family. “Because we all live apart, I always find the time to travel and meet with my parents, siblings, and niblings,” she shares.
Vásquez offers this advice to biophysicists starting out in their careers: “I would advise young biophysicists to follow what they are really passionate about. I feel very lucky because I get paid to do something that I love to do, and I always tell my juniors that working in a research lab should not feel like a job but instead something fun and entertaining,” Vásquez says. “Curiosity should drive their research and their willingness to explore more and more every day.”