Miguel Miranda-Román, Doing Research with an Impact
Since 1988, the United States has recognized National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) as a time to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans with roots in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central, and South America, and Spain, and to honor the accomplishments of Hispanic Americans.
This year, the Black, Latino, Asian and Multicultural (BLAM) Employee Resource Network is privileged to highlight a few members of Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI), who share what the month means to them as well as their thoughts on the importance of representation in academia.
Miguel Miranda-Román, takes pride not only in being an accomplished biomedical scientist, but also a "science communicator" for the masses, especially for Spanish-speaking populations.
Since becoming a member of the Gerstner Sloan Kettering (GSK) Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 2015 and PhD candidate in Ping Chi's lab in 2016, Mr. Miranda-Román has worked hard to advance the field of cancer and benefit patients through research. "I pursued cancer research because I knew it could help people and society," he says.
Most recently, he has taken up writing digestible news articles about COVID-19 in Spanish. His goal is to help Spanish-speaking people all around the world, including his native Puerto Rico, stay up-to-date on the latest COVID-19 news and dispel any misconceptions about the virus.
"Being away from all my family and friends during these troubling times – I felt like my hands were tied and I had no way of helping them during this pandemic," he explains. "One way that scientists can help, especially during COVID-19, is to make sure that all the scientific discoveries remain accessible for everyone that wants to learn about them."
"Science is for everyone, and when we write or talk about it, we need to remember all communities, including those that don't speak English, so we can include everyone in the conversation," he adds.
A Hunger for More
Mr. Miranda-Román was born and raised in Puerto Rico. His mother worked as an elementary school teacher before becoming a stay-at-home mom to care for him and his older brother. His father is an internal medicine physician, who continues to practice in Puerto Rico.
As a child, Mr. Miranda-Román discovered his passion for science after watching documentaries about astrophysics and the cosmos on television. He went on to participate in several science fairs in middle school and high school, which further developed his love for science. (Pictured left: Miguel at his 8th grade science fair.)
He met his future wife, Andrea López, in his junior year of high school. They married on August 5, 2018, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
As he grew older, he knew he wanted to pursue a formal career in science. He excelled in school and graduated as valedictorian of his high school in May 2010 and then magna cum laude from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras in May 2015, where he majored in cellular and molecular biology and earned a spot on the Faculty of Natural Sciences Dean's Honor List.
During college, he became interested in cancer research and pursued a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health's Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (U-STAR) program.
The summer before graduating college, he made the difficult yet exciting decision to apply to graduate schools in the United States.
"I knew this meant that I would have to move away from my family and the island where I had lived all my life," he says. "But I made this decision knowing that I was going to be able to achieve my dream of becoming a scientist and inspire other Puerto Ricans by showing them that being a scientist is a true option for them."
He interviewed at GSK in January 2015 to pursue his PhD and was offered a position at GSK soon afterwards. He accepted the offer in March 2015. He is expected to graduate in summer 2021.
Research with an Impact
In March 2019, Mr. Miranda-Román received the Horizon Award from the Department of Defense (DoD) and a $147,000 grant to conduct research on malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs), a rare but aggressive type of soft tissue sarcoma, or cancerous tumor, that forms in in the connective tissue around the nerves. MPNST affects about one in 100,000 people, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
With support from the DoD and his mentor, Geoffrey Beene Junior Faculty Chair Ping Chi, MD, PhD, Mr. Miranda-Román is investigating how MPNST has developed resistance to current targeted therapies and how common genetic changes found in this cancer affect its sensitivity to new treatment strategies.
"My studies can not only help the veteran population and their families, but can also fill the knowledge gap about how to treat this rare disease," says Mr. Miranda-Román.
He says taking on MPNST was both daunting and thrilling. MPNST has not been as widely studied as more common cancers, but Mr. Miranda-Román's passion for making scientific discoveries and conducting impactful research drives him to deliver the best results he can. He is helped enormously, he says, by Dr. Chi's guidance.
"Having her support and expertise helped me learn more about how MPNST develops in the clinical setting and how to better study those aspects in the lab," he says.
"Grants are extremely difficult to get, so it was an incredible achievement for Miguel to receive this award," says Dr. Chi. "I'm really happy for him and know this award will help his career tremendously and potentially bring new therapeutics to patients with this disease."
Noticias de Covid-19 en Español
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City went into lockdown and SKI paused its research. Around that time, Mr. Miranda-Román noted that conspiracy theories were spreading about the virus (especially within the communities in his hometown), including the idea that COVID-19 may have been constructed or purposely manipulated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. "There is no room for the spread of misinformation during a pandemic, and that is why I started to be vocal in the social networks trying to do my part in helping to put an end to all of them," he says.
Yaihara Fortis-Santiago suggested he take advantage of the opportunity and prepare a science news article debunking the COVID-19 origin conspiracy and discussing in lay terms how all the scientific evidence available discredited these conspiracies. He wrote the article in Spanish, and it was published in the leading newspaper in Puerto Rico at the end of March 2020.
In May, the same newspaper published his second article, which discussed the scientific and medical evidence showing that COVID-19 not only affected the lungs, but many other organs of the body as well. Mr. Miranda-Román also wrote an opinion piece about the importance of believing in the scientific community during these dangerous times.
"Scientists are not motivated by political agendas and our efforts are guided by our commitment to help society by studying and learning more about COVID-19 and using it as a stepping-stone for developing effective treatments and vaccines," he says.
Mr. Miranda-Román is currently preparing another opinion piece to reinforce the importance of wearing face masks to control the spread of COVID-19. (Pictured left: Miguel in San Juan, Puerto Rico.)
The Meaning of Hispanic Heritage Month
Mr. Miranda-Román is reminded of all that Hispanics have contributed to the United States when he thinks of Hispanic Heritage Month.
He is also reminded of the injustices and racism that Hispanics still endure in the U.S., including Puerto Ricans, who are often believed to be non-citizens. He thinks of his father, too, who experienced racism from patients after moving to New York City to pursue his internal medicine residency about 35 years ago. Because of these negative experiences, his father moved back to Puerto Rico.
"Now I am living in the same city that didn't accepted him all those years ago," says Mr. Miranda-Román. "While I recognize that things have improved a lot in New York City, I also know that there is still a lot more that needs to be done to make it a more welcoming place for everyone."
Academia is an environment that needs greater diversity, he says. "The lack of representation in academia leads to many of us suffering from 'imposter syndrome.' It makes us question the importance of what we are doing since we rarely see people like us doing science. But representation in academia is not a numbers game. We need to make the real effort to create a welcoming environment that recognizes everyone's situation and celebrates the differences we have in culture, perspectives, experiences, and more."
"Change is hard, but change is needed, both here in MSK and in academia at large," he continues. "Thanks to the discussions that have started here in MSK, we now have the opportunity to be leaders and not followers, to listen and start acting with a clear goal in mind, and to put an end to systemic inequalities, injustices, and the lack of minority representation in science."