Overview

Joselin Hernandez Ruiz is originally from Colombia and comes to the University of Utah from the General Hospital of Mexico. He is an enthusiastic and collaborative researcher who is passionate about integrating multidisciplinary technologies to advance translational research. Dr. Hernandez Ruiz received his Ph.D. in Immunology and, as part of his training, investigated the role of CD8 T cells in chronic diffuse cutaneous leishmaniasis. He has also studied Hepatitis C and alcoholic liver disease; his primary area of interest, however, is tissue damage caused by chronic inflammation in Type 2 diabetes and obesity. He was recently at the South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley where he completed a post-doctoral fellowship focused on understanding the functional role of genetic variants located in the 3’ untranslated region of genes associated with inflammation. Dr. Hernandez Ruiz plans to build on his extensive experience in Dr. Marcus Pezzolesi’s laboratory and help lead an NIH-funded project aimed at investigating the mechanisms of rare genetic variants and their role in the rapid progression of kidney disease in diabetes.

Education

• PhD, Biological Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2011
• MSC, Biological Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2004
• B.S., Biology, Universidad Nacional de Colombia Departamento de Biología, 2001