Career Conversations: Q & A with Bioengineer C ésar de la Fuente

Dr. César de la Fuente. Credit: Martí E. Berenguer. “Science provides adventure and excitement every single day. When you’re pushing boundaries, you get to jump into the abyss of new areas. It can be scary, but it’s an incredible opportunity to try to improve our world and people’s lives,” says César de la Fuente, Ph.D., a Presidential Assistant Professor in the Perelman School of Medicine and School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Our interview with Dr. de la Fuente highlights his journey of becoming a scientist and his research using artificial intelligence to discover new drugs. Q: How did you first become interested in science? A: I’ve always been fascinated by the world around me. I grew up in a town in northwest Spain, right on the Atlantic Ocean. As a kid, I would go to the beach to investigate marine organisms and bring home all sorts of different fish to study. My mom wasn’t too happy about that! We’re all born scientists, but we tend to lose that curiosity as we enter adulthood. The key is to not lose our ability to learn every day. Q: How did you become a scientist? A: My career has been an extension of that curiosity I had as a kid, that passion for learning how the world works and trying to create new things. I think that’s what took me to different countries and different places. I studied microbiology and immunology at the University of British Columbia during my Ph.D...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacology Bacteria Computational Biology Drug Resistance Medicines Profiles Source Type: blogs