UCI School of Medicine Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month: Valeria Rangel

Valeria Rangel, PhD candidate in the Department of Biological Chemistry working in the Pannunzio Laboratory, has also been enthusiastically praised for her work as a champion for health equity and a mentor who lifts as they climb. Her thesis project focuses on understanding the underlying mechanism of chromosomal translocations between the IgH locus and CRLF2 that gives rise to an aggressive subtype of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which disproportionately affects the Hispanic community.

Her work was commended as an integral part of the Pannunzio Laboratory’s awarding of a MERIT Award from the National Cancer Institute. Furthermore, Valeria is currently mentoring a student through the Cancer Health Equity Research Partnership (CHERP), a partnership between UCI and Cal State University, Fullerton, and is also an exemplary role model for undergraduate student workers in the lab. She attributes her passion for mentorship to her experiences growing up near the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Growing up, I spent most of my weekdays having to commute across an international border to get to school… which was not unusual for most kids who attended elementary school near the San Ysidro border,” she recalls. “I grew up around Hispanics and Latinos that knew the importance of embracing both cultures, but most importantly, the importance of giving the next generation of Hispanos opportunities that were not made available to our parents and grandparents.”

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