Mayra Quito

University of Minnesota
Department of Neurosurgery
421 Lions Research Building
2001 Sixth Street SE
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
quito001@umn.edu

Mayra is a junior scientist at the University of Minnesota. She graduated cum laude with a BS degree in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico – Cayey. While working on her bachelor’s degree, she collaborated on a variety of research projects including the analysis of the response and regeneration strategies of an evergreen tree, Pterocarpus officinalis, and other two species after a human disturbance at Sardinera forest; the monitoring of populations from the species Eleutherodactylus (Puerto Rican coqui), in different forests in Puerto Rico that are affected by drastic changes in habitat conditions (temperature, acid rain, forest composition) and seems to become extinct; and the enrichment device effectiveness of toy rotation in Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) in captivity. She also worked under LSSURP - University of Minnesota in 2000 analyzing the correlation of goldfish sperm motility and velocity with fertilization success.  She also used to be a volunteer at DAMAS hospital in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

In 2001, Mayra accepted a position as a research technician at the University of Minnesota in the Pharmacology Department where she worked on the preparation of Paramecium tetraurelia TERT expression in a Heterologous system by changing stop codons to glutamines by site direct mutagenesis. Mayra then received a supplement from the National Institutes of Health to work in the Neurosurgery Research Laboratories at the University of Minnesota where she helps in brain tissue processing for histological analyses, cultures stem cells, and performs immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence on brain tissue sections. She also performs immunofluorescence to identify areas of the brain where glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) accumulate and performs, collects and analyzes behavioral tests using the MPS IH (Hurler Syndrome) Murine model.

Mayra also takes classes at the University and plans to attend graduate school in the fall of 2005. Her main interests and concerns in life are her family, animal welfare (animals used in research deserve healthy and non-stressful conditions), environment protection, Puerto Rico political conditions and immigrants rights.