Maria Valentina Chirinos Pena

Welcome to the HumBio Core! My name is Valentina, and I’m delighted to be one of your A-side CAs. I began my college journey at City College of San Francisco, where I worked as a TA for chemistry and biology, before transferring to Stanford in Fall 2023. As a Humbio major, I concentrated in Molecular and Cell Biology because I’m fascinated by how cells function as tiny, self-contained worlds that constantly interact with each other and their environment to sustain life. At Stanford, I completed an honors thesis using CRISPR to tag proteins involved in myelination signaling during neural development in zebrafish. I’ve also worked at UCSF developing strategies to enhance CAR T-cell cancer immunotherapies and gained clinical experience as a medical assistant in San Francisco urgent care centers. Outside of school, one of my proudest projects is Ambos Mundos, a nonprofit I founded that provides financial support to hospitalized pediatric patients in Venezuela. I became a CA because my own CAs were instrumental to my success, and I’m excited to pay that forward. In my free time, I love swimming, hiking, cooking, and spending time with my family. I can’t wait to get to know you all and hear about your journeys