Montserrat Marquez
Undergraduate Student
About Montserrat
Montserrat was born in Mexico, in a town called Naucalpan, but she grew up all over Latin America (most notably Mexico City, São Paulo, and Puerto Rico). She grew up in a STEM family, so she knew she wanted to study something in relation to Chemistry.
Outside of her work in the lab, you will probably catch her at a baseball game or at the movie theatre, and if she’s not there, she’s probably talking about both. She’s inspired to work in Chemistry by her peers in the Esser-Kahn lab, especially since she believes all her co-workers are destined to change the world.
Education
B.A. in Chemistry, B.A. in Economics with a Business Specialization. University of Chicago, 2025
Favorite Quote
“There’s no crying in baseball!”
– Jimmy Dugan, portrayed by Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own.
Scientific Hero
Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski
Favorite Paper
J. Osipiuk, S.-A. Azizi, S. Dvorkin, M. Endres, R. Jedrzejczak, K. Jones, S. Kang, R. Kathayat, Y. Kim, V. Lisnyak, S. Maki, V. Nicolaescu, C. A. Taylor, C. Tesar, Y.-A. Zhang, Z. Zhou, G. Randall, K. Michalska, S. A. Snyder, B. Dickinson, A. Joachimiak.Structure of papain-like protease from SARS-CoV-2 and its complexes with non-covalent inhibitors
Nat. Commun 2021, 12, 743.
If you could be a piece of lab equipment, what would you be?
Rotavap!
Montserrat's Research
Montserrat is currently working alongside Maria Roman and Ashley McCowin through the Scott A. Snyder and the Esser-Kahn labs. The research entails the development and synthetization of Bafetinib analogs. These analogs will ultimately be tested and hopefully included in vaccines in order to increase the efficacy and decrease the side effects.