Discovering strength through adversity
Graduate student awarded HHMI Gilliam Fellowship for bacterial immunity research
UT Southwestern graduate student Luis Rodríguez-Rodríguez faced formidable challenges growing up as a first-generation student in a low-income home in rural Puerto Rico, where he knew the prospect of earning a bachelor’s degree would not be easy.
“My biggest driver for pursuing my goals was seeing my single mother working every day to provide for me. She taught me that regardless of my background, I could accomplish my dreams through hard work, dedication, and perseverance,” Mr. Rodríguez-Rodríguez said.
With an unshakable resolve for success, he defied the odds, earning a B.S. degree with a major in microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) at Arecibo. “Through my diligence and with my mother’s support, I became the first in my family to attend and graduate from a university,” he said.
This scientific innovator is now gaining national recognition. He and his adviser, Kevin Forsberg, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Microbiology, have been named to the 2024 cohort of the esteemed Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellows Program.
The pair is one of 50 teams of graduate students in science and their dissertation advisers recognized for their outstanding research, mentorship, and commitment to advancing equity and inclusion in medicine, according to the HHMI. This year’s group of Gilliam Fellows hail from 43 institutions across the U.S., with each team to receive $53,000 in support annually for up to three years.
Mr. Rodríguez-Rodríguez is using functional metagenomics to study bacterial immunity and discover novel bacterial defense systems in the lab of Dr. Forsberg. When he graduates from UT Southwestern’s Molecular Microbiology Ph.D. Program in 2027, the aspiring microbiologist hopes to become a leading scientist and mentor in his field and create awareness in disadvantaged communities about STEM careers.
“I’m incredibly honored to have been chosen for this award,” said Mr. Rodríguez-Rodríguez. “Dr. Forsberg is an excellent PI (Principal Investigator) who really emphasizes mentorship and an open, communicative relationship, which has helped me feel supported and well trained through my Ph.D. journey.”
Members of the Forsberg Lab investigate what they term the “evolutionary arms race” in the conflict between bacteria and viruses (called phages). Bacteria impact human life in many ways – they help us digest food, train our immune system, cause disease, and are the foundation of our world’s ecosystem. The world’s bacteria have developed numerous defensive strategies to prevent infection by their phages.
“Many examples of these defense systems probably exist in nature that have yet to be found,” Dr. Forsberg said. “Luis aims to address this knowledge gap by using high-throughput functional selections to identify new examples of these defense systems from uncultured microbiomes. These discoveries could lead to new tools in molecular biology (à la CRISPR-Cas9) or one day improve emerging phage-based therapies. His work is our first big splash in this area, and he will carry the banner for the Forsberg Lab. I couldn’t be happier to have him in this position.”
Through high school and college, Mr. Rodríguez-Rodríguez worked in grocery and department stores and gas stations to pay for his education. While a student at UPR-Arecibo, he taught STEM-related activities for K-12 students and conducted undergraduate research. “These experiences not only affirmed my commitment to outreach and mentorship, but also taught me to be a leader,” he said.
He set his sights on earning a doctorate degree – but faced two substantial barriers. Educated in a rural town in Puerto Rico left him with significant gaps in English, so he enrolled in an affordable language teaching institute to sharpen his communication skills. He also needed additional research experience to be a competitive candidate for admission to a Ph.D. program, so he became a scholar in the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) – a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded internship that supports student academic and career development – at the University of Georgia for one year.
As a PREP scholar, he joined the Rajao-Perez Lab, where he worked on developing live attenuated influenza virus vaccine platforms. In 2021, he was accepted to the Ph.D. program at UTSW and joined the Forsberg Lab.
“It is because of this experience that I am a strong advocate of training programs that support underrepresented communities in STEM careers,” he said.
Mr. Rodríguez-Rodríguez is active in community service, participating in student-led organizations including the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM) chapters. He traveled with the UTSW Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences to participate in outreach activities with Puerto Rican undergraduates and NIH-PREP scholars at the University of Georgia. He mentored three undergraduates while in the Forsberg Lab, sharpening his skills as a leader.
These experiences led Mr. Rodríguez-Rodríguez to cultivate morals of humility, resilience, and solidarity.
“These values help me be a compassionate and determined advocate for others with hardship. As a Gilliam Fellow, I aim to establish a robust network among my peers with similar backgrounds by fostering collaboration and communication. I am hopeful that being a part of this community will enhance my leadership abilities, help me achieve my goals, and further my capacities as a role model to other Latino, gay, and first-generation scientists,” he said.