Diana Bautista facts for kids
Diana M. Bautista is an American neuroscientist who studies how our bodies sense things like itch, touch, and pain. She is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she teaches about cells and how living things develop. She is also part of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute.
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Early Life and Education
Diana Bautista grew up in Chicago and was the first person in her family to finish high school. Before going to college, she worked for an environmental group in Chicago. This job made her interested in how chemistry, the environment, and human health are connected.
This new interest led her to study environmental science at the University of Oregon. While working in a lab there, she became fascinated by how cells communicate and how the nervous system works. Her professor encouraged her to go to graduate school.
Graduate Studies and Early Research
Diana Bautista chose to go to Stanford University for her graduate studies. In the lab of Richard Lewis, she studied how tiny pumps and channels in cells, called PMCA and CRAC channels, control calcium levels inside T-cells. Calcium is very important for how cells work.
After finishing her graduate work, she became a post-doctoral researcher in David Julius's lab. Here, she focused on understanding how certain proteins, called TRPA1 and TRPM8, respond to different things.
Discoveries About Senses
Dr. Bautista's research has helped us understand how we feel different sensations. She has made important discoveries about how our bodies sense things like spicy foods, cold, and even environmental irritants.
Understanding TRPA1 and Pain
Dr. Bautista helped discover that a chemical found in wasabi and other mustard plants, called allyl isothiocyanate, strongly activates a protein called TRPA1. This protein is like a sensor in our bodies.
She also showed that chemicals from garlic plants (like allicin) also activate TRPA1. It's interesting because both garlic and mustard plants have similar chemicals that activate TRPA1. This might be a way these plants protect themselves from animals that try to eat them.
TRPA1 is also activated by things in the environment that can irritate us, like acrolein. Acrolein is a chemical found in tear gas and car exhaust. Dr. Bautista used special mice that didn't have the TRPA1 protein. She showed that when TRPA1 is activated by chemicals like acrolein, allicin, or allyl isothiocyanate, it causes pain. This happens because TRPA1 sends signals to our pain-sensing nerves, called nociceptors.
Exploring TRPM8 and Cold
Dr. Bautista also studied another protein called TRPM8. She used mice that didn't have the TRPM8 protein to show that TRPM8 is the sensor in our bodies that detects cold temperatures and menthol (the cooling chemical in mint).
In 2008, Dr. Bautista started her own research lab at the University of California, Berkeley. She continues to explore the amazing ways our bodies sense the world around us.
Awards and Recognition
Diana Bautista has received many awards for her important scientific work. Some of these include:
- 2005-2010 Burroughs Welcome Fund Career Award in Biomedical Sciences
- 2009-2013 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences
- 2010-2012 Rita Allen Foundation Pain Scholar
- 2012 UC Berkeley Prytanean Faculty Award for outstanding research, teaching & outreach
- 2013 International Forum for the Study of Itch, Handwerker Prize for Research
- 2014 Young Investigator Award from The Society for Neuroscience
- 2016 HHMI Scholar
- 2016 UC Berkeley Class of 1949 Endowed Chair
