Welcome to the The Quarterly Connection, where we dive a little deeper into our programming as well as share upcoming activities and opportunities for you to engage in. This month we are excited to share a story from one of our Undergraduate Pre-Health Program fellows, Lucas Guerrero. Read on to learn about his academic journey as he pursues his MD/PhD, with the ultimate goal of advancing healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community.
My name is Lucas Guerrero. I come from a long line of concrete laborers who immigrated from Mexico 30 years ago on my mom’s side. My Dad is also in this field, but he is a recent immigrant. Neither of my parents finished college or pursued anything related to the sciences, so I began my community college experience with no expectations. As a first-generation student, I got my academic start at Front Range Community College and am currently a senior at Colorado State University majoring in neuroscience and earning minors in biomedical sciences and biochemistry.
My family has been involved with the campus for decades, as my grandparents’ concrete company has been providing concrete installation and repair services for CU Anschutz for many years. Growing up, I visited the CU Anschutz campus with my Tito (grandfather) when he would do concrete jobs for the campus and found I was more interested in what research was ongoing within the facilities, rather than the concrete work my Tito’s team was working on. I had the opportunity to become involved when in 2023, as an undergraduate, I spent time as a summer intern at CU Anschutz through the Colorado Research Experiences (CORE) program. Then in 2024, I returned through the Undergraduate Pre-Health Program (UPP). I'm proud to have come out of these experiences with a deepened passion for research, and it means a lot to me that my family is proud of what I've accomplished.
I strive to become a physician-scientist and have made it my mission to advance the field of endocrinology. I am passionate about LGBTQ+ healthcare, specifically transgender health. As a queer man myself, I have experienced firsthand the disparities that the queer and trans community face when seeking healthcare. With this perspective, I aspire to lead inclusive healthcare efforts, pushing boundaries for a more empathetic and informed medical landscape.
From the beginning of my academic journey, I aspired to become an endocrinologist to care for transgender and gender-diverse patients. However, no one in my family could guide me on this journey, and I felt like I was behind in my medical pursuits. As a first-generation community college student, I struggled to find clinical opportunities. I did not have the information, nor the connections necessary to begin with the classic experiences pre-medical students go through, such as shadowing physicians, and I was extremely intimidated by the healthcare field. So, I was extremely grateful when I heard of a program whose mission was to support students who aspired to address health disparities in Colorado. I knew it was exactly what I needed.
I heard about the UPP from Dr. Do, whom I met when I needed a new primary care provider. When I met with him for my first annual health check-up appointment, I shared that I was a pre-MD/PhD student, and he told me about the UPP program. He was a part of one of the first cohorts and attributed his success as a physician to the opportunities and resources UPP provided. His testimony of the program cemented that indeed it was the program that would give me the direction, guidance, and mentorship I needed. I soon applied and was ecstatic to hear I was selected to join the 2023-2024 cohort of fellows.
As a fellow, I have loved my experience within the UPP and have truly grown as a person and professionally as well. I was formally introduced to the program last August 2023 and was first invited to CU Anschutz’s Pre-Health Day. Soon after, my cohort would meet virtually on Saturdays for professional development workshops (Saturday Academy) facilitated by Dr. Dominic Martinez, Dr. Sonia Ivette Valencia, and other amazing CU faculty. The Saturday Academy workshop that impacted my career the most was the mock interview panel, which invited admission directors from all the professional schools at CU Anschutz to give mock interviews and provide feedback. After I received feedback and learned what the admission teams generally look for, I felt confident and prepared for future interviews, such as my National Institutes of Health Undergraduate Scholarship Program (NIH UGSPP) interview.
My first week of June was filled with Career Exploration Week, a week designed for all fellows to gain exposure to different healthcare fields. They invite students and admission directors from the School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, Doctor of Physical Therapy program, SKAGGS School of Pharmacy, Anesthesiologist Assistant program, and the College of Nursing. We also had the opportunity to tour the Center for Advancing Professional Excellence (CAPE) and spent a day getting first aid and CPR certified. After this amazing week, I made important connections with the amazing facilitators and with the other UPP fellows.
From the Pathways Alumni Conference (PAC), I connected with Sothary Chea who runs the Middle School CU Pre-Health Scholars Program (CUPS) and she hired me as a learning assistant for their middle school version of our career exploration week. I engaged with middle school youth in STEM activities, prepared class materials, and assisted with student drop-off and pick-up. I also supported CUPS staff in facilitating and modeling group activities, such as Candyland STEM Trivia and building popsicle catapults. Additionally, I had the opportunity to be an activity facilitator for the K-12 STEAM Exposure Day. As a facilitator, I led an activity where I engaged with K-12 youth by creating neurons from pipe cleaners. In this activity, I presented the fundamentals of neurons and shared fun facts about neuroscience. The activity finished with a Q&A session, answering questions about neuroscience topics, my experiences as a college student, and the interactive game Kahoot! where youth competed in teams to test their comprehension. These experiences solidified the love and fulfillment I get from working within the community, especially with educating youth on STEM topics and being the representation and support I needed as a kid.
After my middle school learning assistant position, I sought a research internship with Drs. Kerrie Moreau and Zachary Clayton. Dr. Moreau is an expert in sex hormone manipulation studies and is an avid supporter of transgender clinical studies hosted through her lab. As I have wet lab experience from previous summers, I was a resource to finish immunofluorescence staining human endothelial cells. I also had the opportunity to gain experience with clinical studies by supporting senior members with clinical visits. My mentor, Dr. Clayton supervised me each day in the lab and provided several professional development opportunities, such as allowing me to assist in peer reviewing within the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology and Frontiers in Endocrinology. Throughout all my research experiences, the mentorship, support, and culture within Dr. Moreau’s lab I felt comfortable bringing my whole self into the lab. I am very grateful that they have offered to keep me on as a student assistant, which has allowed me to gain translational research skills to eventually work on a project that will become my neuroscience senior thesis project. I could not have asked for better mentors, and I am excited to see what work will come from our amazing team.
Participating in UPP gave me access to amazing resources, developed my professional and personal skills, and allowed me to branch out to network with the amazing faculty. As a UPP fellow, we had access to Dr. Valencia, an expert in grant writing and working with first-generation underrepresented students. Throughout the program, we received individual virtual one-on-one sessions to seek guidance for scholarships, graduate and research programs. I applied for two major scholarships as a fellow, the Truman Scholarship in November and the NIH UGSP in March. Dr. Valencia proofread my essays, guided me on my wording, and helped convey my story as an underrepresented student in STEM. She is such a phenomenal mentor and without the UPP I would have never had access to such guidance.
Although I was not selected for the Truman scholarship, Dr. Valencia ensured I kept my hopes up when I applied for the NIH UGSP. I submitted my application in March of 2024 and heard back in June that I was selected as a finalist to give an interview. I was so excited to learn that I was a finalist and was proud to share the news with Dr. Valencia, the UPP team, and my other mentors. Dr. Valencia organized a mock interview for me with her colleague, preparing questions, and mimicking the entire interview experience. I am so grateful to Dr. Valencia and her colleague for setting time aside for me and giving me valuable feedback and the confidence to ace my interview. I went into the interview confident and ready and truly gave it my all. I left the interview feeling happy knowing I had so many people supporting me regardless of the outcome. The following week, I received the news that I was one of 12 people nationwide to be selected as an NIH UGSP scholar. This prestigious award means so much to me as I can not only finish my undergraduate degree without financial strain, but I also get to take advantage of the amazing offer of paid service obligations that are included in working at the NIH. Next summer in 2025, I will intern for 10 weeks in their Bethesda, Maryland campus and then work full-time after I graduate in December 2025. Through the NIH UGSP, I will be put on equal footing with other MD and PhD applicants who started their academic careers strong, as they had the resources needed to do so. It means a lot that the NIH would choose to fund my aspirations and invest in my mission to help my community through rigorous research, medicine, and advocacy. I am to be connected to several key faculty mentors at the NIH with similar interests in advancing the healthcare of underrepresented communities and furthering my professional development as a future physician-scientist.
My high school experience was rough, and I never thought I could pursue a career in research or medicine. I graduated with a 1.9 GPA which limited my college options and led to rejections from many institutions. Due to this, I started my academic career at Front Range Community College (FRCC), where I dreamed of becoming a physician-scientist, but had no guidance to help me reach my aspirations. When I started FRCC, I was not sure how to pursue my dream of becoming a physician-scientist until I learned of, applied to, and was selected for the Wolves 2 Rams program. This program was crucial in helping me turn my dream into a material possibility. Currently, at Colorado State University (CSU), I have encountered the challenge of not having a faculty guide to support me in developing my research interests. I am navigating this challenge by applying for external research opportunities and seeking out mentors elsewhere to do the work I wish to expand on. One research opportunity I had was my project for the Multicultural Undergraduate Research Art and Leadership Symposium (MURALS) that occurs yearly at CSU. I was curious about the current basic science research being conducted to further transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) healthcare, leading me to conduct a literature review titled, “From Rodents to Results: The Value of Animal Models in Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy Studies.” Through this literature review, I assessed the current atmosphere of the animal models used to study TGD health and presented my project at the MURALS. I remain committed to navigating existing and future barriers until I become a physician-scientist who will bridge the gaps between basic science research and health policy to improve the quality of healthcare and research for TGD patients.
After completing my payback to the NIH in 2026, I will apply for Medical Science Training Programs (MSTP) and MD/PhD programs. I plan to apply to the University of Michigan Medical School (UMich), the University of California San Fransico School of Medicine (UCSF), the University of Washington School of Medicine (UW), Stanford University School of Medicine, and CU Anschutz. These are institutions that I have identified as having strong faculty and programs committed to addressing the transgender communities' disparities through research, which is my mission.
Within the CU Anschutz MSTP program, I want to complete my doctoral training in their Integrated Physiology, Neuroscience, or Biomedical Engineering programs. As for the other schools, I see myself pursuing similar programs depending on which I can incorporate my research interests into. I enjoy wet lab, translational, and clinical research and have had the opportunity to work within four different labs as an undergraduate. I love translational research as it requires a mix of wet and dry lab techniques to verify the efficacy of a study. I aspire to seek the knowledge behind the long-term health effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and I know there is value in using a translational research approach.
After graduating from an MSTP program, I plan to apply for residency programs in internal medicine, pediatrics, or obstetrician gynecology (OB/GYN) and have a focus on research development. I aspire to complete an endocrinology fellowship and develop a strong research team to start my lab that focuses on sex differences, transgender studies, or neuroendocrinology. We will use this information to inform current medical practices to push a well-informed medical landscape for future and current transgender and gender-diverse patients and minimize the healthcare disparities that are a result of misinformation.
The UPP program gave me the mentorship, guidance, and connections I needed to navigate a career as a future physician-scientist. This is a phenomenal program for those underrepresented students who feel lost and alone in their journeys in healthcare. If you feel like you can relate, I encourage you to apply and be open to growing as a professional committed to addressing healthcare disparities.
I also encourage you to do what calls you in life. I feel like many often follow in the footsteps of their parents without considering their true interests. In my younger years, I thought that I wanted to pursue a career in my parent’s concrete company, but after giving it more thought I realized that work did not fulfill me, and I opened my mind to pursue other possibilities. If you feel like you want to work within the healthcare field and research, my advice is to follow your passions and surround yourself with mentors who share your goals and will support you no matter how you identify.