Marie Isabelle Viola

Isay holds a master’s degree in molecular biology and biotechnology. For her thesis, she investigated the potential role of a pseudogene, a non-coding RNA, with a potential role in the pathogenesis of cancer and a neurodegenerative disease endemic to Filipinos – X-Linked Dystonia Parkinsonism. Currently, she is working as a Senior Science Research Specialist at the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology – UP Diliman under the drug discovery program of the country. Her team is screening plant extracts from different institutes and universities for potential drug candidates against several diseases using cell-based assays.

Her mentoring experiences have always been a 2-way street. Being one of the senior members in her lab, she was able to train not only some of their younger members, but also researchers from other universities. In return, her mentees have shown her different views and fresh insights that continuously enrich and diversify life perspective. She finds the act of exchanging knowledge and experiences with other people to be grounding, enlightening, and fulfilling.

She has always been curious on how things work and function. Understanding life at the molecular level is definitely one of the most interesting ways to do that. Wanting to share her desire for science, especially to the youth, Isay joined SIDHI. She believes that the youth holds great potential to do something substantial about the world’s problems. For her, it is up to the older generation to harness this potential. With enough guidance and direction, hopefully, the youth will be able to think independently for themselves and know what to do on their own.

As she once heard, her advice to future researchers is: “If you want to thrive in science, you must have a strong tolerance for failure. In times when you feel like giving up, always go back to why you started in the first place. All your hard work will eventually pay off.”