Caroline Facey
A Ph.D. student who came to IMSD in her junior year, Caroline Facey
has been working with her mentor Professor Richard Lockshin since
February 1997 on “Programmed Cell Deaths” and hopes to finish her
degree within a year. Caroline says that she was attracted to St.
John’s University after participating in a number of track meets on
the Queens campus. “I liked what I saw and fell in love with the
school,” she explains, adding that the IMSD program is a “great
program” and she feels “lucky every day.”
Since joining IMSD, Caroline has traveled to conferences in
Cancun, Madrid, Australia, Ireland and next year will visit Brazil.
She was recently invited to a conference for graduate students at
St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee,
where she toured the facility and presented a paper on her work.
The Manhattan native is now contemplating a career working in their
biomedical research labs, perhaps finding a cure for some of the
many children who come to St. Jude each year.
Victoria Ruiz
Today a St. John’s student, tomorrow a cancer researcher
Victoria Ruiz, a sophomore in the IMSD program, is majoring in
biology with a minor in chemistry. She has been interested in
research since she was in high school and is currently working in
DNA research in Professor Laura Schramm’s laboratory. She “loves
St. John’s” and says it’s the only school she applied to. After
graduation, she hopes to enroll in a M.D./Ph.D. program and to have
a career in cancer or infectious diseases research.