Pedro De la Torre Márquez
Pedro was born in Barranquilla and grew up in the rural areas of Hibácharo and Sabanalarga (Atlántico, Colombia). In Sabanalarga, Pedro attended to high school at Asociación de Profesionales de Sabanalarga (ASPROS) supported by a scholar fellowship.
Pedro received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Universidad del Atlántico (Barranquilla) and his PhD in Applied Sciences from Universidad de Talca, supported by Conicyt-Chile. As a PhD student at the Center for Bioinformatics and Molecular Simulations and the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Resources (IQRN) at Universidad de Talca, Pedro combined the chemical biology and structural bioinformatics to design potential Anti-Alzheimer agents. After finishing his PhD, he was awarded with the Pelotonia Fellowship for Cancer Research at The Ohio State University (OSU) and started his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Sotomayor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the School of Art and Sciences. There he used a variety of biophysical approaches to study the structure-function relationships in protein complexes and also genetic mutations involved in deafness, blindness, and cancer.
Currently, Pedro joined Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear (MEE) as a postdoctoral fellow, where he is applying biochemistry, structural & molecular biology, and gene therapy to restore hearing and vision in animal models, which could be used to treat patients in the future.
Pedro is a board member and serves as the Community Manager 2019-2020 of the Harvard Colombian Student Society (HCSS) at Harvard University.
He loves the Carnival of Barranquilla, and defends the public education system of Colombia.
