Dr. Del Rosario is a postdoctoral research associate in the Laboratory of Dr. Robert Gereau in the Department of Anesthesiology. Dr. Del Rosario’s research focuses on the understanding of mechanisms that drive adaptive and maladaptive plasticity in the peripheral nervous system to modulate pain and mechanosensation. Dr. Del Rosario is originally from the Dominican Republic and enjoys karaoke nights and, of course, great Latin American music (salsa, merengue, and bachata). Read about his day in the life!
A typical day in Dr. Del Rosario’s life is distributed the following way:
Before getting to the lab
- The alarm goes off around 5:30 a.m. on some days (running days) and others at 7:30 a.m.
- First thing in the morning, I check my phone for emails, texts, or specific activities planned for the day.
- Around 7:30-7:50 a.m., I take a nice warm shower, where I have some time to reflect on life and potential experiments I would like to implement in my research.
- 8:30 a.m. – After getting ready, I prep some breakfast (Yes, I do not drink coffee), blow a kiss to my dog and husband, and off to the lab.
After getting to the lab
- 9:00 a.m. – My day starts with assessing the experiments planned for the day, answering emails, and prepping for potential meetings.
- 9:15 a.m. – Set up the mice for behavioral assays or prepping solutions for electrophysiological recordings.
- 10:00 a.m. – I start behavioral or electrophysiological experiments. If I am performing electrophysiological experiments, I will be studying the biophysics of sodium channels expressed in sensory neurons. Otherwise, I will be studying the intrinsic excitability of human and mouse sensory neurons.
- 2:00 p.m. – I take a lunch break, sometimes, with colleagues.
- Around 3:00 p.m., I go back to my ongoing experiments.
- Around 6:00 p.m., I clean up my electrophysiological rig or animal behavioral unit and move to my desk to enter the data collected for the day.
- 6:00-8:00 p.m., I analyze data, work on grants, write papers, and prepare for the next day.
- 8:30 p.m.- Time to go home!
After getting back home
- 9:00-9:15 p.m. – Dinner with my husband and watch one of my TV series (too many to mention here)
10:30-11:00 p.m. – Time for a shower and get ready for bed.
