Oscar E. Ruiz, Ph.D.

Oscar grew up in Brownsville, Texas but is originally from Tampico, Mexico. Despite this he considers himself a Native Texan. After high school Oscar attended the University of Texas at San Antonio and received his B.S. Biology, and finished his university training with ZERO RESEARCH EXPERIENCE. After graduation, Oscar moved back to Mexico and taught HS Biology for a year. During this time Oscar also enrolled in a Masters program in Food Science and Biotechnology, at the Univ. Autonoma de Tamaulipas, where he studied the chemical composition of various Agave species that are used as food sources. After finishing his Masters degree Oscar, moved to Houston to work at Baylor College of Medicine as a research technician in the lab of Dr. Monica Justice. During this time Oscar worked on a genetic screen in mice looking for mutations that affected metabolism. After his time as a research technician, Oscar began his graduate studies at the Univ. of Utah in the lab of Dr. Mark Metzstein where he worked on the development of the larval Drosophila respiratory system. After his graduate work Oscar pursued his interest in host pathogen interactions by moving to Lisbon, Portugal for his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Luis Teixiera. There, his work there largely focused on host-microbe interactions in Drosophila and specifically on the identification of Drosophila genes that are important for its immunity to viruses . In 2014 Oscar returned to Texas to work at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the laboratory of Dr. George Eisenhoffer where his research focused on studying tissue homeostasis in epithelia and the opportunistic infections that can arise when epithelia are damaged.

In the Wythe laboratory, Oscar leverages his experience in imaging and zebrafish, as well as bioinformatics, to understand how endothelial dynamics are altered in disease settings, such as brain arteriovenous malformations. Oscar also teaches concurrently at Houston Baptist University, and is actively involved in educational outreach and continuing education.

Oscar’s Pubs:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=ruiz+oe%5Bau%5D&sort=date