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Wednesday,June2,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
Odell native heads to Harvard for Ph.D.
Trisha Walker
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
Carlos
Marquez
credits his
aunt, Maura
Rosa Cody,
with setting
him on his
career path.
When he
Carlos
Marquez
was 7, Aunt
Rosa died
of heart disease, and that
impacted him greatly.
“To me, it just didn’t make
sense,” he said. “How does
the person with the biggest
heart pass away from heart
disease?”
Marquez, born and raised
in the Hood River/Odell
area, is a recent graduate of
Rensselaer Polytechnical
Institute (RPI) with a bach-
elor’s degree in biomedical
engineering.
“Biomedical engineer-
ing is just applying creative
principles of engineering
to solutions in healthcare,”
Marquez said.
But he’s not done yet.
In March, Marquez was ac-
cepted to the Harvard School
of Engineering and Applied
Sciences Ph.D. program
in Engineering Sciences:
Bioengineering — part of
the 5.7 percent of applicants
accepted this application
cycle. While there, he will
be part of a team working to
create a functional human
heart. Classes start in early
September.
Marquez has spent a lot
of time in research labs,
which he called the “buildup
to Harvard.” He graduated
from Hood River Valley High
School in 2016 and he began
his college career at Oregon
State University. Although
ultimately not a good fit,
the experience did lead
him to two different labs at
Oregon Health and Sciences
University (OHSU).
The first featured com-
putational modeling on a
computer. “We’re looking at
finding a new way to design
aortic valves for patients who
have aortic valve abnor-
malities,” Marquez said. “So
what I was doing is model-
ing this new way to make
aortic valves and using those
models to see if it was viable
at all.”
His next lab had him
looking at ways to develop
a biomaterial for patients in
need of new vasculature.
“When people have plaque
buildup or an artery gets
injured or damaged, they will
need a replacement artery,
and sometimes what they do
is take tissue from that person
from somewhere else — from
maybe their leg — to another
place where they need it
more,” he said. “But that’s
difficult with some patients
because (they) don’t have
viable tissue to transplant, so
we were looking at making
a new kind of material to do
this, to build these small-di-
ameter vascular grafts.”
In 2018, Marquez trans-
ferred from OSU to RPI,
located in upstate New York,
and in 2019, earned an in-
ternship through the Harvard
Stem Cell Institute. While
there, he worked to develop
accurately mature cardiac
tissue that “we can then look
at understanding how the
physiology of the cardiac tis-
sue in certain disease states
actually works,” he said.
His latest experience was
last spring, working in the
Center for Modeling, Imaging
and Simulation in Medicine
at RPI. “I was trying to build
computational tools for the
lab to make this kind of new
way to detect disease and
classify disease,” he said.
“They’re trying to use Optical
Coherence Tomography to
classify certain disease tis-
sues and healthy tissues and
compare those two, and I was
building models to help them
do those computations.”
At Harvard, Marquez is
looking forward to his own
research projects.
“The reason Harvard
attracted me so much is
because I want to branch
out from cardiac kind of
problems and also do other
things,” Marquez said. “…
There’s a big relationship
with the medical schools and
all the hospitals there, and
it will allow me to build a
general background in those
subjects.
“One of my primary inter-
ests, outside of the cardiac
field, is helping glaucoma
patients. These patients have
elevated pressure within
their eyes that leads to the
death of optic nerve cells,
ultimately leading to vision
loss. Within this context, I'm
interested in gene therapy, to
lower the pressure causing
harm in these patient's eyes,
and optic nerve regeneration,
to repair any harm already
done," he said. "In addition,
I'm also interested in tackling
inflammatory bowel disease
(IBD), such as Crohn's
Disease and Ulcerative
Colitis. IBD patients suffer
from inflammation within
their gastrointestinal tract
that causes extreme pain and
discomfort. I'm interested in
developing disease mod-
eling platforms to increase
the efficacy of treatment for
patients and investigating the
physiology and underlying
genetics of IBD."
In addition to his ac-
ceptance into the Harvard
Ph.D. program, Marquez has
earned three fellowships:
Harvard Graduate School of
Arts and Sciences Graduate
Prize Fellowship, the GEM
University Fellowship,
and the National Science
Foundation Graduate
Research Fellowship.
That last one was awarded
to 2,000 students in a pool
of 12,000 applicants, and
anyone from any scientific,
technological or mathe-
matical field could apply. “I
was the only student from
my university, who is still a
student there, to get one,”
he said. “There were some
alumni who were working at
other jobs who got it.”
The GEM fellowship seeks
to increase the participation
of underrepresented groups
in engineering and science
master’s and doctoral pro-
grams; the Harvard Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences
fellowship seeks to increase
diversity on campus.
The fellowships, while
providing financial support
for his research, have an
additional purpose: “I can
put that in my resume and
its shows a prowess in grant
writing,” he said. “… That’s
really important because my
end goal in pursuing a Ph.D.
is to one day lead my own lab
and do my own experiments
at a research university.
So that helps establish me
already as someone who can
write grants well and earn
one.”
Marquez is very modest
about his accomplish-
ments, but hopes his story
will inspire other students.
“Growing up here was re-
ally influential to me — I’m
proud to say that I grew up
here,” he said. “… My parents
came here from Mexico,
worked in the orchards and
built everything up for us,
for me and my sister. We
could never complain about
anything, really — we had
food on the table, a roof over
our heads. I kind of think it’s
a common thing here.
“I don’t think my story is
special at all — a lot of stu-
dents here experience that,”
he said.
He particularly appreciates
his time at Wy’east Middle
School, saying, “I give it more
credit to the kind of person I
am and the work ethic I have.
“When I was going to
school here, I had a lot of
teachers — I may not have
learned a lot in terms of
academic things, that wasn’t
their fault, it was my fault be-
cause I was just a rowdy kid
at the time — but they taught
me a lot about character
and a lot about believing in
myself, and reaching for my
dreams. That has stuck with
me throughout it all.”
One teacher, now retired,
heard he was interested in
Harvard and pulled him
aside. “I don’t know how they
heard, but they wanted to
let me know they believed in
me. That really meant a lot.
Other teachers were similarly
impactful, just trying to push
me and make me take it more
seriously. Middle school is a
great place for you to realize
that — in seventh grade,
the only class I passed one
semester was choir or wood-
shop, so that explains to you
the kind of kid I was.”
And in the future, he hopes
to pay that support forward.
“Growing up in Odell, I
never found anyone to look
up to as a role model, espe-
cially as a Hispanic student
interested in STEM,” he said.
“Part of my drive and passion
comes from this fact. I hope
that by taking advantage of all
the opportunities that have
been presented to me, I can
help forge a path for future
generations to accomplish
their goals and make their
dreams come true. In addi-
tion, I hope to one day help
provide opportunities for
Odell students interested in
STEM. I know that I would
have greatly appreciated and
benefited from them.”
•••
Una versión en español de
esta historia está en línea en
www.columbiagorgenews.
com/enespanol.
NEWS TIPS?
info@gorgenews.com
Carlos Marquez will begin work on his Ph.D. in bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences in September. An Odell native, his time at Wy’east Middle School was influen-
tial.
Trisha Walker photo
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