After receiving my D.SC. (1987) and Ph.D. degree (1988) from the University of California in Los Angeles and being a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow (1988-1992) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I was recruited by Ponce School of Medicine and Health Sciences (PSMHS) as Assistant Research Professor in 1992. I currently serve as Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Principal Investigator (contact PI) in the PSM-MCC (Moffitt Cancer Center) U54 Partnership, initiated in 2012. I have been a leader in the development of research and teaching programs at PSMHS, particularly in areas relevant to cancer research and pharmacology/toxicology. I am an active cancer researcher funded by NIGMS and the NCI. After losing several close family members to cancer in the 1990s, in 1999 I decided to switch the focus of my laboratory from toxicology to cancer. At that time, there was no cancer research at PSMHS. In 2003, I initiated the development of what eventually became the U56 and U54 Partnerships, largely the outcome of the efforts of many faculty and administrators. These are the premier cancer programs of PSMHS which function as a Partnership with Moffitt Cancer Center and the NCI. In the U56 Partnership (planning grant) that was funded from 2006-2011, I was Co-Principal Investigator and was involved in decision making, communication, research, and planning, both within PSMHS and with MCC. More recently, in the U54 Partnership, in which I serve as the contact PI for PSMHS. With resources from the Partnership and other programs, I continue to develop a critical mass of cancer research scientists both basic and clinical with emphasis on cancer health disparities. I am responsible for overseeing the entire operation of the Administrative Core, its Planning and Evaluation Core, in close collaboration with the other three members. I serve as the direct link with the other contact PI at MCC (Dr. T. Antonia), the Program Steering Committee (PSC) as well as the NCI officials and with all members of the Partnership.

I have extensive experience mentoring undergraduate, graduate, medical students, physician residents, post-doctoral researchers, resident fellows, and faculty. I currently serve as thesis mentor or co-mentor for two Ph.D. students in our Biomedical Sciences Program, two undergraduate students, medical students, several Hematology-Oncology Fellows and three faculty members from two institutions. My mentoring skills have been substantially enhanced through the U56 Partnership Career and Mentorship component, in which I serve as a mentor for Dr. Julie Dutil, a geneticist, and collaborator in breast cancer research. I also serve as a mentor for Dr. Martinez for her K01 grant and for Dr. Pablo Vivas (K22 grant) both faculty members at the Puerto Rico Cancer Center.

I am a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the Society of Toxicology and the Association of Medical School Pharmacology Chairs (ASMPC). I serve on the chemotherapeutics, toxicology and vitamins subcommittees of the ASMPC that establishes the learning objectives in pharmacology for all medical schools in the USA, Canada, and Puerto Rico. I have taught for many years the cancer chemotherapeutic drugs in the medical pharmacology course. My laboratory was the first one to publish the finding that a low DNA repair is an important risk factor for breast cancer (Ramos et al. 2004, Matta et al. 2012). For the last 14 years, my laboratory has focused on conducting translational cancer research in large-scale population studies, with emphasis on the role of DNA repair as a risk factor for breast and skin cancer, identifying DNA repair genes involved in cancer susceptibility, and studying epigenetic mechanisms by which such genes are regulated and silenced. I have been very successful in maintaining active collaborations with scientists from research intensive institutions, from the University of Puerto Rico and intramurally (PSMHS). I am a member of the Editorial Board of Biological Trace Element Research and the Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal.