Congratulations to Carline Fermino do Rosario for being awarded the Cadena Travel and Training Award for 2022! The Cadena Award supported Carline’s enrollment in an intensive Quantitative Fluorescence Microscopy course held at the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine in the summer of 2022. While attending this intensive one-week course, Carline expanded her knowledge and expertise in microscopy methods to further dissect important questions in living cells. In addition to hands-on experience with advanced microscope systems, Carline learned quantitative analytical methods to digest the data she collected. This invaluable opportunity not only helped Carline advance her research but also propelled her professional development, as she added new skills to her toolbox and deepened her understanding of microscopy techniques.
Carline grew up in Cabo Verde, an archipelago off the west coast of Africa. She moved to the United States at the age of 17 and graduated from New Bedford High School in Massachusetts. For college, she attended Bristol Community College before transferring to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2017. She continued on to pursue her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at UMass. She is a first-generation graduate student.
Carline is a Ph.D. candidate studying the mitotic spindle under the guidance of Professor Patricia Wadsworth. For successful division, the spindle microtubules must align the chromosomes, elongate to segregate the chromosomes, and signal for cytokinesis. She is interested in the kinetics and mechanism of microtubule stabilization as the cell divides. Her project aims to understand the dynamics of microtubules in the midzone throughout anaphase using photoactivation of LLCPk1 cells expressing PA-GFP tubulin. At UMass, she uses powerful resources at the Light Microscopy Core Facility such as the Resonant Scanning Confocal instrument. The Wadsworth laboratory uses live cell imaging as a tool to enhance the understanding of the processes that govern cell division.
The Cadena Travel and Training Fund honors the legacy of MCB alumnus Dr. Juan Guillermo (Guillo) Cadena. In 2010, Guillo was diagnosed with metastatic cancer and within months succumbed to complications from treatment. At the time of his passing in July 2010, Guillo was survived by his wife, 2-year-old twins (Amaya and Gabriel), parents, siblings, and many close friends. The Cadena Award was established in 2020, 10 years after Guillo’s passing, in memory of his dedication to science and teaching. Guillo’s close friends Nasser and Susanne Rusan, with help and support from Guillo’s family, sought to keep his memory alive by giving back to the MCB program by establishing the Cadena Travel and Training Fund.