Dr. Margarita Irizarry-Ramírez is a Professor at the School of Health Professions in the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPRMS). She teaches courses in both, the Clinical Laboratory Sciences master’s program as well as in the Post Doctoral Master in Clinical Research. Dr. Irizarry-Ramírez is also a researcher in the field of prostate cancer. Her main goal is to try to unravel the causes for the high mortality rate of men with prostate cancer in Puerto Rico. Her laboratory is doing research using both proteomic and genomic approaches to study prostate cancer. Her formal academic background includes a BS in Biology and MS in Molecular Biology of Radiation and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. In addition she has completed various certifications of Ethics and Ethics in Research as well as formal NIH sponsored courses in Biomarkers Discovery and Proteomics.

Dr. Irizarry-Ramírez has mentored students from the undergraduate to the post doctorate level. She is active in the scientific community in Puerto Rico having been president of the Caribbean Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the AAAS Committee on Council Affairs. As member of the Division’s Board of Directors she organized symposiums and other activities to bring science to the community, including the general public and middle and high school students. Dr. Irizarry Ramirez is also the Collaborations and Partnerships Core Leader of the Puerto Rico Clinical and Translational Research Consortium (PRCTRC)
Margarita is also a member of the RTRN cancer cluster and has attended sessions to organize collaborative research among the RTRN’s institutions. Since 2001 she was a member of the Institutional Review Board at UPRMS and chair of one of its panels. She is also a member of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R), AAAS , AACR and the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) among others