FIRST GEN FRIDAY: Ruben Petreaca
Associate Professor of Molecular Genetics
First Gen Friday is a monthly first-person narrative written by other first generation college students who are now fellow faculty, staff, and students at Ohio State Marion. The goal of the stories is to provide advice to other first generation college students and create a sense of belonging among the campus community.
I first started taking undergraduate college classes at San Bernardino Valley College, a community college in San Bernardino County, California. From there I transferred to the University of California, Riverside. My interest was biology and like every undergraduate student I intended to go to medical school. I completed the entire pre-med curriculum and for good measure also took some extra classes in math, physics, and history. For extra-curricular activities I volunteered in an emergency room and did some undergraduate research. It was then that I realized that I do not like working in hospitals but loved doing research. I suppose the rest is history.
I finished my graduate studies at UC Riverside followed by 6 years of postdoctoral training at University of Southern California. During both my grad-school and postdoc I studied chromosome structure, replication and repair. Mistakes in these processes are endemic in cancer cells, and I wanted to understand why. Cancer genetics attracted me because I wanted to know how a fine-tuned machine like the cell can reprogram itself in such a fashion as to escape all regulations. I entered the field at a major junction in cancer genetics and in fact human genetics in general. The human genome sequence had just been published in my first year of grad school (2001). This sequence was a draft, and it took over twenty years to produce a high-resolution version (2022). Within this time the NIH launched The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), a repository of cancer genome sequences with varying degrees of analysis. These data made it possible to map and characterize mutations in cancer cells. Importantly, this did not replace work in model systems (e.g. mice and other smaller animals) but rather complemented it. I should also mention that both my parents died of cancer at early ages which further cemented my resolve to study this disease.
In 2016 I was hired as an Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics at Ohio State Marion. I wanted to continue my research, but Marion does not have graduate students. For their part, the Molecular Genetics department were very supportive and encouraged me to get graduate students. However, I have always believed that my mission is to support the campus and decided to work exclusively with undergraduate students. This is probably the best decision I have made. I derive the greatest pleasure from helping students succeed in their undergraduate studies as well as matriculate in post-graduate programs. My goal is to offer research opportunities to undergraduate students at Ohio State Marion beyond receiving undergraduate research credit or doing an undergraduate thesis. I make it possible for my students to publish their work in international peer-reviewed journals and attend scientific conferences.
In 1995 I landed in the LAX airport in Los Angeles not speaking a word of English having just immigrated here from Romania, an Eastern European country. My parents did not attend college which made me a first-generation student not turned faculty! What I learned is that this country provides many opportunities for success if you work hard. Therefore, my advice to first generation students is never think that you cannot achieve your goals just because you don’t have the familial academic pedigree. Keep pressing and never stop learning!