Anna La Torre
Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Human Anatomy. Dr. La Torre combines molecular and cellular biology, stem cells, and mouse studies to study neuronal development.

I began my scientific career solely driven by the curiosity to understand how organisms built themselves from a single cell and how cells communicate to each other to choose their identities to ultimately form tissues and functional organs.

During my graduate work at the University of Barcelona (Spain), I studied how combinations of signaling pathways regulate neuronal development and migration in the brain. This experience encouraged me to come to the US for a postdoctoral training at the University of Washington (Seattle). As a postdoc, I implemented stem cell technologies to understand the molecular mechanisms of cell differentiation as well as to develop new approaches for regenerative medicine. These research interests have recently brought me to UC Davis where I use the mammalian retina as a model to pursue some of these questions.

I am a neuroscientist, a cell biologist, a curious individual and a passionate researcher…  but I’m also an avid reader, a photography aficionado, a Catalan, an obsessive list maker, a woman, a new mom and an immigrant.

All these things make me a unique person, with a unique perspective of the world and a unique viewpoint of science.  I believe that success in academia greatly depends on the ability to embrace diversity and to appreciate the benefits of a larger pool of ideas and experiences. However, for a very long time cultural diversity has been perceived as a problem; being a CAMPOS scholar I intend to change this perception, starting at UC Davis but aiming to the greater scientific community.