December Fellow's Spotlight on Dr. Christian Cazares

December's Fellows Spotlight goes to Keystone Symposia Fellow Dr. Christian Cazares. Dr. Cazares is a postdoctoral researcher in the Cognitive Science Department at UC San Diego, where he studies neurodevelopmental disorders. He is also a strong advocate for mentorship and DEI, having launched a mentorship program for undergraduates in his spare time. The Colors of the Brain program encourages students from under-represented backgrounds to enter biomedical research careers by providing them with opportunities to engage in summer research at the university, and the support from the community to pursue their goals.

In this Q&A, he shares more about this impressive program, and how his background and experiences shaped his passion science, and for supporting diversity in the scientific community.

Christian Cazares, PhD

Briefly describe your research, why it is important, and what motivates you to pursue this area?

My research aims to find electrophysiological markers that link brain activity, cognitive abilities, and brain structure to better understand neurodevelopmental disorders. By studying human brain activity, lab-grown organoids, and animal models, I hope to inform the development of targeted treatments that can improve early brain development in children with neurodevelopmental conditions like autism spectrum disorder.

My research is personally driven by the prevalence of neurodevelopment disorders in low-income, marginalized communities, including members of my own family.

Becoming an academic lab head is not just my career goal; it's a profound calling that aligns my passion for cognitive science with my commitment to social justice. This alignment stems from my belief that cognitive science can play a crucial role in addressing societal inequities by enhancing our understanding of how socioeconomic factors influence cognitive development and mental health. 

What are your thoughts on the importance of mentorship? How has your Keystone mentor influenced you and your career? 

I’ve embraced a "humans first, scientists second" philosophy towards supporting my trainees.

My deep commitment to ensuring trainees are compensated for their research work has led to a proactive approach where I participate in panels and review groups that provide constructive feedback on trainee research award applications. My Keystone mentor has helped refine and edit my statements for research faculty positions and serves as a model for providing positive, yet critical feedback for improving award applications. In addition, the Fellow's Fridays have provided valuable lessons on tips and tricks, as well as what to expect during the interview stage of a faculty job search.

How do you act as a mentor for your community?

In 2020, I led Colors of the Brain and secured funding from the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind to launch a new undergraduate summer research program. Our goals are to motivate, mentor and facilitate the transition of undergraduate students at UC San Diego that come from disadvantaged economic and social backgrounds, as well as students with disabilities, into Ph.D. programs with significant relevance to neuroscience. The CoB-KIBM Scholars Program consists of a paid, full-time research position across 10 weeks within a UC San Diego or Salk laboratory, along with mentorship and support for navigating academic research for the remainder of their undergraduate education.

We highly encourage students with little or no research experience to apply. Our program currently offers the highest student stipends among UCSD summer undergraduate research programs, primarily motivated by our desire to ensure that financial needs would not cause our scholars to doubt their commitment to a research career.

What motivated you to start the program?

I firmly believe that diversity in the biomedical workforce is critical for the advancement of science. Evidence has shown that a diverse research community brings a wider range of perspectives, leading to more innovative research questions that can broaden our understanding of health disparities and their underlying causes. Conversely, the systematic exclusion of minoritized groups in research environments not only endangers equal opportunity but also limits scientific impact by narrowing the scope of inquiry centered on historically underserved communities.

My beliefs are shaped by firsthand experience with the transformative power that academic research opportunities can bring to minoritized students. It is my view that these experiences can, in the long term, dismantle systemic barriers to mental health equity by providing early exposure to scientific careers.

By inspiring students from minoritized backgrounds to pursue higher education through these experiences, we can cultivate a new generation of scientific leaders whose unique perspectives will reshape research priorities and policies to address long-standing mental health disparities through the lens of cognitive science.

What personal experiences shaped these efforts?

At UC Berkeley, I received the NIH MARC Undergraduate Research Award as a cognitive science major, which provided critical financial support and career development. However, the lack of diversity among faculty was striking and made it difficult to find role models from similar backgrounds who could provide inspiration and motivation to pursue a career in science. This experience brought to my consciousness the importance of representation in academia and its impact on student aspirations.

My participation in the NIH Postbaccalaureate Program at UPenn was a pivotal moment in my career trajectory. There, I joined a diverse cohort of aspiring neuroscientists and supportive mentors. This experience taught me the importance of targeted support and mentorship for underrepresented groups. I also learned that the norms of scientific environments are often unfamiliar to minoritized students, creating a social capital barrier to their career aspirations.

Finally I experienced how the financial empowerment of minoritized youth within scientific environments incentivizes their commitment to research, just as receiving the NSF-GRFP fellowship did for me. Witnessing colleagues from marginalized backgrounds leave academic research due to the compounded effects of these barriers motivated me to create initiatives promoting diversity and inclusion in research careers as soon as I began graduate school.

Therefore, in 2016, as a first-year graduate student at UCSD, I founded Colors of the Brain, a program to promote the inclusivity of minoritized undergraduates in neuroscience by providing professional networks, research training, and financial empowerment.

What challenges did you face in launching the program?

Without staff support, I faced the challenge of assembling a team capable of administering the program. I created a program template and pitched it to colleagues. Within a month, I enlisted over 20 graduate students from the Neurosciences Graduate Program, the Psychology Department, and the Cognitive Science Department at UCSD who shared my mission to provide positive research experiences to historically marginalized undergraduates. This grassroots effort, with feedback from my diverse team, involved coordinating advertising, forming an admission committee, establishing mentorship pods, designing a professional development curriculum, and creating surveys to track scholar outcomes. I could not have done this alone.

What have been the outcomes of the program?

Having managed over $150,000 of funds to serve 4 annual cohorts totaling 25 undergraduates, we have come full circle: multiple scholars have been accepted into UCSD graduate programs, and one now serves as a key leader within our organization. I am deeply committed to ensuring the enduring influence of this initiative. With the foresight that this program should outlast me, I registered our organization as a California non-profit (501c3), wrote a commentary manuscript on our lessons learned (in Nature Neuroscience), and advised four outstanding graduate students who have served as program co-directors over the last four years.

Out of 19 scholars that participated in our program:

• 18 continued in research in either the same or a different lab the following quarter
• 5 are co-authors in published or preprinted research manuscripts.
• 3 have been awarded the McNair Scholarship
• 1 was a Goldwater Scholarship Finalist
• 1 became a UCSD Cognitive Science Summer Fellow
• 3 were awarded the UCSD TRELS scholarship
• 2 were awarded the UCSD BUMMP scholarship
• 3 were awarded ABRCMS Conference travel awards

Of the 8 scholars that have graduated from UCSD since participating in our program:

• 6 were hired as research lab technicians at UC San Diego (1), the Salk Institute (2), UC San Francisco (1), University of Washington (1), or Northwestern University (1).
• 1 was accepted into the UCSD Neurosciences Graduate Program.
• 1 was hired as a data analyst in the industry research sector in the San Diego area.

Read more about the Colors of the Brain program & outcomes:

https://colorsofthebrain.com/publication/

Christian Cazares, PhD

 Postdoctoral Researcher, Cognitive Science Department, UC San Diego

SD IRACDA Fellow NINDS/NIMH DSPAN Fellow

Website: https://chriscaz.com/

Find out more about:

Keystone Symposia Diversity in Life Sciences Program

Keystone Symposia Health Equity Initiatives

Keystone Symposia Fellows Program