![\"Pastorino\"](\"\/ombs\/files\/2018\/03\/Pastorino-636x424.jpg\")
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Sitting across from us in the comfort of her very practical, but nevertheless, cozy office space, Dr. Lucia Pastorino savors her chicken and rice. \u201cDo you mind if I eat lunch? I haven\u2019t eaten all day,\u201d she asks as she gets out her lunch box. A prominent member of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Department, Dr. Pastorino keeps a tight schedule; nonetheless, she takes the time to share her inspiring story of exploration, discovery, and growth. <\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Pastorino was born in the beautiful city of Lecco, Italy, a small industrial town north of Milan. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful because it\u2019s right at the lake and there are mountains,\u201d she reminisces, \u201cit was a city that taught me a lot; it\u2019s a city of hard workers.\u201d The industrial nature of the city produced a population that mostly consisted of business professionals and entrepreneurs; however, that was not her calling. \u201cI really didn\u2019t want to be in business. I wanted to be in the science field, so I chose [to pursue a] B.S.\/M.S. for my undergraduate studies.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Pastorino\u2019s undergraduate years were spent at the University of Milan studying Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, which she loved because of its interdisciplinary applications to studies of medicine. \u201cI wanted to see things from all different angles,\u201d she explains, \u201cwith Medicinal Chemistry, you have chemistry, physiology, anatomy, biology, and biochemistry… you get to bring everything into the lab in one experience.\u201d When she started her thesis, Dr. Pastorino was working in a Neuropharmacology lab that conducted studies on Alzheimer\u2019s Disease, which then became the basis of her career as a researcher studying how modifications in the protein APP affect the progression of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease. In 1996, she published her first paper with this lab, exploring the functions of beta-secretase at the genetic level. After graduation, she completed a fellowship in Geneva and eventually earned a Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology at her alma mater. <\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Pastorino first arrived in the United States on October 2nd, 1999 for her postdoctoral fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. \u201cI remember landing at JFK and thinking, \u2018what a beautiful skyline,\u2019\u201d she recalls, \u201cI couldn\u2019t wait to get out of the airplane. I loved it.\u201d She also recalls her living space, which was \u201caltogether, as big as [her office].\u201d In spite of her cramped apartment – which also came with mice and roaches – Dr. Pastorino claims that her three years at Mount Sinai were the best years of her life. What she loved most about New York was that \u201c[she] was nobody, with the happiness to be nobody,\u201d which gave her the freedom to be independent and pursue her own adventures. She proceeded to publish another paper in 2002 concerning the intracellular transportation of beta-secretase, which contributes to the accumulation of Amyloid-beta plaques in the brains of Alzheimer\u2019s patients. <\/span><\/p>\n At Mount Sinai, Dr. Pastorino met her future husband while taking English classes at a different institution. Shortly after they met, her then-boyfriend moved to Boston, and a year and a half later, she followed. In 2003, Dr. Pastorino worked as a researcher and instructor of Medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Three years later, she became an instructor at the Harvard University Extension School. There, she pursued her passion for teaching. \u201cI love it,\u201d she tells us, \u201cI love telling you what this is all about. I get too excited!\u201d In 2013, Dr. Pastorino became a lecturer of Neuroscience at Boston University. When we asked what attracted her the most to the university, she responds, \u201cBU [has] a very cooperative and diverse community of scientists that [really enriches my teaching experience]. I wouldn’t be able to do the same somewhere else.\u201d The neuroscience department at BU, which is ranked number 41 globally by US News, has a special place in her heart. \u201cYou guys, your motivation, your interest, your excitement – you\u2019re challenging sometimes,\u201d she explains, \u201cwe always hope to challenge you in a good way, knowing we will be challenged back. This is what makes all of us better, it keeps us growing.\u201d Dr. Pastorino\u2019s goal as an educator is to make sure that her students don\u2019t fear the subjects she teaches and to make her classes as enjoyable as she can. She credits her department for giving her the freedom and flexibility to achieve her goals, and applauds \u201c[the department\u2019s] ability to be appreciative of all [their] resources and to push [themselves] to do something new.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Pastorino currently teaches four classes at Boston University: Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Biology (NE102), Biology of Neurodegenerative Diseases (NE525), Translational Research in Alzheimer\u2019s Disease (NE535), and the Pre-lab portion of Organic Chemistry I with Integrated Science Experience Lab (ISE II). You can find out more about these classes on the BU course catalog.<\/span><\/p>\n Writer:\u00a0Stephanie Gonzalez<\/p>\n Editors:\u00a0Enzo Plaitano, Yasmine Sami, and Yoana Grigorova<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sitting across from us in the comfort of her very practical, but nevertheless, cozy office space, Dr. Lucia Pastorino savors her chicken and rice. \u201cDo you mind if I eat lunch? I haven\u2019t eaten all day,\u201d she asks as she gets out her lunch box. A prominent member of the Undergraduate Neuroscience Department, Dr. Pastorino […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11518,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1366],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7729"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7733,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7729\/revisions\/7733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}