Geanncarlo Lugo-Villarino

Biology Postdoc
University of California, San Diego


Geanncarlo Lugo-Villarino started his journey in science at Southwestern Community College (Chula Vista, CA) in 1991. At this early stage, he was fortunate to be the recipient of the “Bridges to the Future” fellowship (1993-1994) that ensured his transfer to SDSU (San Diego State University) in 1994.  At SDSU, he received support from the MARC (Minority Access to Research Careers) honors program (1995-1997) to perform undergraduate research in B cell development at the Scripps Research Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Ann J. Feeney (www.scripps.edu/ims/feeney). For his last year in college, he was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship from the undergraduate research scholarship program (www.ugsp.nih.gov/home.asp?m=00) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After obtaining his Bachelor’s in Science degree with emphasis in Cell and Molecular Biology (1998), Geanncarlo relocated to Bethesda (MD) to fulfill a one-year research-training commitment in Dr. Warren J. Leonard’s laboratory at NIH. In 1999, he entered the Immunology Ph.D. program at Harvard University under the supervision and mentorship of Dr. Laurie H. Glimcher (www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/immunology/fac/Glimcher.html).  His doctoral training was sponsored by a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation. For his dissertation, Geanncarlo studied the role of the transcription factor T-bet in dendritic cell biology.  He received his Ph.D. degree in the spring of 2006.

Geanncarlo joined Dr. David Traver’s lab (biology.ucsd.edu/labs/traver/index.html) at UCSD (University of California, San Diego) in the fall of 2006.  He is interested in using the zebrafish to study the biology of antigen-presenting cells at the interface of hematopoiesis and immunoimaging. Overall, his research project intends to improve our current understanding of the molecular and cellular events that dictate the origin, lineage commitment, migration, maturation, proliferation and life span of antigen-presenting cells. Geanncarlo’s ultimate goal is to become a professor and independent investigator. In this role, he will continue his relentless commitment to the development of young scientist from minority groups underrepresented nationally in the biomedical sciences.

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