Ray Malfavon-Borja
Ray Malfavon-Borja
Ray was born and raised in San Diego County, California. He is of Mexican and Chamorro (Guamanian) descent. Ray only has one sibling, a younger sister. Ray also has a beautiful, yellow 1970 mustang.
Ray started his college career at Palomar Community College and eventually moved on to the California State University of San Marcos (CSUSM) where he earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree. Another of Ray's achievements while at CSUSM was becoming a MARC U-STAR (Minority Access to Research Careers & Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research) scholar. Also at CSUSM, Ray got his first taste for basic sciences research in the lab of Dr Denise Garcia, where he studied the effect of viral stress on retrotransposons in the genome of Blue Shrimp. Ray gained additional lab experience through the 2006 Stanford Summer Research Program, an 8 week program where he worked with flies in the lab of Dr. Dmitri Petrov.
Ray left his home in sunny Southern California (along with his family and mustang) to attend graduate school at the University of Washington in the Genome Sciences Department. After three rotations Ray made the decision to join the Malik Lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His research project focuses on studying the repercussions of CyclophilinA retrogenes in primates from an evolutionary and virological standpoint. Ray will be exploring the possibility that CyclophilinA retrogenes have generated novel and functional antiviral factors in primate genomes using a combination of computational and experimental approaches.
When not in lab, Ray can often be found playing pool or riding around Seattle on his mountain bike. Ray has a huge appreciation for music and has learned to play several brass instruments including: trumpet, tenor trombone and bass trombone. Occasionally, Ray can be seen playing those instruments or singing karaoke. Other things Ray can be found doing are reading books and manga. And when Ray is nowhere to be found it’s probably because he’s flown back home to Southern California to spend time with his family, indulge in beautiful home cooking and cruise up & down the scenic coasts in his mustang..
Last Modified 9/9/09
