Dr. Alejandro Aballay grew up in Mendoza, Argentina – only a couple of hours away from Mount Aconcagua (the highest mountain in South America). While growing up in a very well educated community, he often participated in scientific and philosophical discussions. As a kid, Alejandro Aballay was fascinated by nature, and because of his passion for learning about the universe and the existence of life, he knew he wanted a profession in science.“Even before grasping the notion of what science was, I was intrigued by the fundamental questions that drive science.” He officially made his decision to become a biologist in high school after reading the fourth edition of Biology by Helen Curtis (a book he still keeps in his library).
In Mendoza, Dr. Aballay attended Juan A. Maza University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy in 1994. Immediately after graduation, he started his PhD in biology at Nacional de Cuyo University and received a Pew Fellowship to study at Washington University. In 1999, he moved to Boston to complete his postdoc at the Ausubel laboratory at Harvard Medical School. During this time, he used C. elegans, a new model organism in the field, to study host-pathogen interactions. In 2002, Dr. Aballay moved to Durham and started his own laboratory in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center. He continues to use C. elegans as models for studying host-pathogen interactions (innate immunity and microbial pathogenesis). Studies from his lab also highlight the role of the nervous system in regulating innate immune responses.
Dr. Aballay’s mentors were Luis Mayorga, his graduate school mentor in Argentina and Fred Ausubel, his postdoc mentor. He is very grateful for their contributions to his scientific career. Dr. Aballay believes a good mentor in science “ is the one that coaches students and postdocs to be independent thinkers by providing guidance but giving them enough freedom to develop their own ideas”.
While his main role is research, Dr. Aballay is also an Associate Professor at the medical school, an editor for the journal PLos ONE, and he is on the editorial board for Virulence. In his free time, he enjoys practicing sports and listening to music.
Dr. Aballay is outstanding in his field. As I continue to work in his lab this summer, I hope to learn more from him as a scientist and as a mentor.
