Hello! My name is Camila Rodriguez and I recently graduated in 2024 with a B.S. in Global Disease Biology. When I first got to Davis, I was a biological sciences major with dreams of becoming a pediatrician, but I was apprehensive at the idea of committing to one specialty for the rest of my life. After taking Ochem, I thought my dreams of medicine were over because I didn’t have the right GPA, so I decided to take a few courses to help boost it and explore other interests. One of those classes was SAS13: “Disease and Society” with Dr. Leveau. I finally felt excited to learn again, and at the end of the course when he introduced the Global Disease Biology major, I immediately knew that I had to switch. It was the best choice I ever made. Although daunting, I am forever thankful that one of the GDB graduation requirements was to complete a practicum. I completed my practicum in Dr. Sergi Simo’s lab, working to establish and validate a stable cell line to create a high-throughput drug testing platform to inhibit CRL5, a protein that has been implicated in having a profound influence on diseases such as cancer and HIV. I am currently working as a Junior Research Associate at the Simo lab, expanding my practicum project to work on developing additional testing lines to target other proteins.

In addition to my practicum research project, the GDB major also allowed me to take public health courses as restricted electives. I fell in love with the topic and took as many classes as I could. In these courses I learned about more professions in the fields of medicine and health research beyond a doctor, and eventually was introduced to the Physician Associate profession. I realized that this career would allow me to pursue my interests in a multitude of patient care specialties as well as permit me to participate in my newfound fascination with research. I hope to continue with the foundations I learned in my GDB coursework by getting my Masters in Public Health and becoming a PA to further my passion for patient care while striving to improve the healthcare system to be the best provider I can be. In my experience, the GDB major provided me with the freedom to explore and find my interests while allowing me to get valuable hands-on research experience. I’m so grateful for everything that I learned throughout my undergraduate career and I’m excited to see what the future holds!