Dr. Susana López Charretón is a virologist studying rotaviruses. She was born in Mexico City in 1957, and knew she wanted to be a scientist from a young age. As a child she did experiments on frozen flies and lizards. She took this curiosity and love of science with her in her education at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City where she obtained a BS in Basic Biomedical Research (1980). She began to work with Chilean virologist, Romilio Espejo, who was studying rotaviruses. She obtained her MS (1983) and a PhD (1986) at UNAM with Espejo, followed by a brief sabbatical at CalTech in the laboratory of James Strauss.
Together with her husband, she formed her own research group at the Institute of Biotechnology at UNAM to continue their work on rotaviruses. Rotaviruses can cause diarrhea and other intestinal conditions. Their major research discoveries span characterization of how these viruses enter a host cell and which molecules are involved in the process, which was foundational for the development of the rotaviruses vaccine. Furthermore, she was also appointed as an international research scholar with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
She has published 84 (though some say 130) research articles in international research journals. She has been honored with several awards for her microbiology. She won the 2001 Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology and the 2012 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Award. She is also the only female Mexican scientist to have served as an editor for the Journal of Virology. Her work now entails understanding more about SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 as well as continuing to build a pipeline for young virologists to do research in the field.
References
- https://www.bumc.bu.edu/citylab/scientist-of-the-month/
- https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mexican-virologist-susana-lopez-charreton-rotaviruses-rna
- https://awis.org/historical-women/susana-lopez-charreton-phd/
- https://smv.org/learn/blog/highlighting-health-scientists-during-hispanic-heritage-month/
- https://www.davisenterprise.com/features/explorit-susana-l-pez-charret-n-saves-lives-with-virology/article_d2cfe98a-71f4-11ef-bda0-17cf973799db.html
