Biography

Luis Francisco was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. He graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. in molecular biology under the tutelage of Dr. Cristina Negritto where he studied double-strand break repair in S. cerevisiae. After graduating from Pomona College, he spent one year in LA BioMed/Harbor-UCLA Medical Center investigating the role of antimicrobial peptides on infective microbial organisms. In 2016 he moved to Bethesda, Maryland and spent the next three years at the NIH in the Ann Dean Lab studying the role of long-noncoding RNA and long-range enhancer-gene interactions in erythroid progenitor cells. In 2019, he moved to Portland, OR to start the MD/PhD program at OHSU. Luis Francisco is mentored by Dr. Jonathan Brody, where he focuses on exploring regulatory genomic elements and changes in the epigenetic landscape during pancreatic cancer progression to metastasis. In his free time, he plays soccer and spends time with his friends and family.

Selected publications

Chan LC, Chaili S, Filler SG, Miller LS, Solis NV, Wang H, Johnson CW, Lee HK, Diaz LF, Yeaman MR. "Innate Immune Memory Contributes to Host Defense against Recurrent Skin and Skin Structure Infections Caused by Methicillin- Resistant Staphylococcus aureus." Infection and Immunity, 85(2). Feb. 2017.

Identification of Candida glabrata Transcriptional Regulators that Govern Stress Resistance and Virulence. Filler EE, Liu Y, Solis NV, Diaz LF, Edwards JE, Filler SG, Yeaman MR. Infection and Immunity. 2021 Feb; 16;89(3):e00146-20. IAI.00146-20. PMID: 33318139

Fetal y-globin genes are regulated by the BGLT3 long non-coding RNA locus. Ivaldi MS, Diaz LF, Chakalova L, Lee J, Krivega I, and Dean A. Blood. 2018 August; blood-2018-07-862003. PMID: 30150205