Alejandra San Martin: Academic Romantic.

Abstract

Alejandra San Martin runs the San Martin Cardiovascular Laboratory at Emory University’s School of Medicine in Atlanta Georgia. Her group studies vascular smooth muscle cell biology—in particular, how reactive oxygen species drive migration of these cells during normal physiology and cardiovascular disease.1–5 San Martin likes to get her hands dirty at the bench, culturing cells and performing experiments, but there is more to this young investigator than meets the eye. On occasion, she’s been known to put down her pipette and pick up a microphone. San Martin has always loved to sing. Indeed, it was a hobby she pursued with vehemence as a youngster. She’s also a keen flamenco dancer. The coexistence of these artistic and academic sides to San Martin’s character is not surprising given her upbringing in a family full of creative, cultural and intellectual influences. This childhood environment fostered an early love for learning, San Martin told Circulation Research. In fact, she was ultimately drawn to scientific research by the romance of the academic lifestyle, she says. Alejandra San Martin I grew up in Sant_iago Chile under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. As a kid, it didn’t appear that bad but, in retrospect, there were many things that I assumed were normal that really were not. Curfews at night, when nobody could be in the street, and the fact that we always had a supply of candles because power stations would regularly be attacked and destroyed by political protestors. These were part of everyday life. The country transitioned to a democracy in 1990, around the time I was going to college. It was liberating, especially because college is a time when you are very idealistic. My mum studied political science and was from a very academic family—her father, who had a 15 thousand volume …