After graduating in Computer Science from the Universidad Politécnico Gracolombiano in Bogota, Colombia, Maria Virginia Ruiz Cuevas, pursued her Master’s studies abroad. She was accepted to the prestigious Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France, where she completed a Master’s degree in Computer Science with a specialization in Bioinformatics and Modeling. After graduating, she was invited by IRIC to participate in an interview with the Institute’s principal researchers in Canada. Following this recruitment event, she chose to come to Montreal to work on an innovative project in which the challenges are shared between the disciplines of biology and computer science. Her research project, co-directed by Drs. Claude Perreault and Sébastien Lemieux, focuses on the study of cells governing the immune system and aims to complete the human immunopeptidome repertoire in order to develop immunotherapeutic protocols.

Maria received her PhD in August 2022. Her thesis focused on improving anti-cancer therapies through a better identification and characterization of non-canonical MHC-I associated peptides. Assya’s thesis is available via the UdeM Papyrus platform (in English).