Esau Medina Honored with Latino Excellence and Achievement Award
Esau Medina, a PhD in Pharmacological Sciences student in the UC Irvine School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, received a Graduate Student Excellence Award from the Latino Excellence and Achievement Awards Dinner (LEAD)!
Medina is an Orange County native who studied at Fullerton College before enrolling as an undergraduate student at UCI, during which time he conducted research as part of the National Institutes of Health’s Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (NIH-IMSD) program. He earned his BS in Biological Sciences from UCI and is the first person in his family to pursue a PhD.
A researcher in the Chaput Lab, Medina’s work focuses on advancing the development of AI-predicted therapeutic aptamers, using XNA to produce antibody mimics, and re-engineering DNA polymerases via directed evolution techniques. He has had two studies published in ACS Synthetic Biology, a first-author publication and “Highly Parallelized Screening of Functionally Enhanced XNA Aptamers in Uniform Hydrogel Particles,” which he co-authored with Dr. John Chaput, Dr. Brian Paegel, and Dr. Eric Yik.
“Esau consistently demonstrates incredible dedication and effort to his studies,” said Dr. Chaput. “It’s truly inspiring to see how his commitment to science is helping him progress in the lab.”
Now in its seventh year, the Latino Excellence and Achievement Awards Dinner (LEAD) is an annual event that recognizes exceptional graduate students, faculty, staff, and leaders at UCI and throughout Orange County. The dinner is held to “celebrate graduate student research excellence and leadership; recognize faculty, staff, and alumni who provide support for excellence and success; and create a sense of community and institutional memory of academic and professional achievement in the UCI Hispanic/Latinx community.” This year’s ceremony took place on April 4th.
“It is great to see awards like this give exposure and representation to the Latinx/Hispanic community within academia. For myself, being able to get some recognition is a very welcome reminder that I also fit into academia,” Medina shared. “It helps to fend off thoughts about not being good enough for academia or an overbearing sense of being a flat-out imposter. Reading about other awardees gives me a sense of comfort that there are others who come from a similar background of adversity and struggle. This award, in my opinion, represents a celebration for underrepresented groups to share their struggles and accomplishments with the rest of the community.”