Bio
Paloma Kai Velez graduated from Vassar College in 2024 with a B.A. in Biochemistry, where she researched the inner workings of eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3), a protein essential to the function of translation initiation. Paloma joined PREP@UCDavis to broaden her research experience within the supportive and collaborative environment that PREP has to offer. Within PREP, she hopes to tune her scientific communication skills and to widen her scope of research in preparation for graduate school. She is currently very interested in virology and is studying how viral outbreaks occur, or more specifically, the factors within the viral genome responsible for outbreak and transmission.