lperez1064@gmail.com
Medical School Student, University of Texas at Houston
Background:
I graduated from UT-Austin as a biochemistry/pre-medical student. I began working in Dr. Gore’s laboratory in fall 2006 as a work-study student, but as of summer 2007 I began working on my own independent research project. I began attending medical school in fall, 2008.
My research focused on the mechanisms for the control of the onset of puberty, which involve the activation of hypothalamic GnRH neurons. In rats, gonadal steroid hormone feedback regulation of GnRH cells is dramatically increased during the pubertal process. In order to ascertain whether this increased sensitivity to hormones is due to changes in expression of their nuclear receptors in the hypothalamus, I worked together with a Neuroscience graduate student, Deena Walker, to determine the postnatal developmental changes in progesterone receptor (PR), androgen receptor (AR), and the estrogen receptors (ERa and ERb) mRNA levels, using quantitative real-time PCR. In addition, I compared the gene expression profiles of male and female rats in order to investigate potential sex differences in the neural changes responsible for the onset of puberty.
Published Abstracts:
- Perez LF, Walker DM, Gore AC (2008) Neuroendocrine gene expression in the medial basal hypothalamus throughout postnatal development. Endocrine Society Abstract (San Francisco, CA).
- Walker DM, Perez LF, Gore AC (2008) Sex differences in neuroendocrine gene expression in the preoptic area-anterior hypothalamus throughout development. Endocrine Society Abstract (San Francisco, CA).
Honors:
- University of Texas, Undergraduate Research Fellowship, 2008