A Pinay Scientist Dubbed ‘Lab AI’
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Rosa Paula "Rochie" Cuevas
Cuevas’ professional growth seems to revolve around facing her fears. She was not comfortable with public speaking so she faced that challenge by co-hosting a radio show (Rotary at Your Service with Johnny Goloyugo) and presenting in conferences. She did not like technical writing at the beginning, but she learned to enjoy it by writing scientific papers.
Working in a Laboratory
"I was intimidated by statistics but I need to use it in research, so I took courses and eventually got into data science (at UC Berkeley Extension). I’m currently not in this field but I’m applying it to automate several tasks that would normally take weeks to finish," says Cuevas who is currently the assistant laboratory director at the Napa-Solano-Yolo-Marin County Public Health Laboratory (NSYM PHL) in Fairfield, California.
"This is a unique laboratory because it provides diagnostic services to four counties. The laboratory is divided into several sections, working on different subspecialities of microbiology," she explains enthusiastically. Cuevas adds that she can work in the bacteriology, rabies, mycobacteriology, and mycology sections.
In the bacteriology section, she usually determines if clinical specimens contain bacteria that typically cause food poisoning (for example, salmonella, and shigella). In the rabies section, she normally checks through microscopy animal specimens for the presence of rabies.
In the mycobacteriology section, she processes clinical specimens, and grows and identifies bacteria that cause tuberculosis, if present. "Sometimes, the laboratory receives specimens that contain bacteria that are closely related to the TB bacteria. I grow and identify those, too."
In the mycology section, she identifies molds growing on culture media based on features she observes under the microscope. "For yeasts, I use biochemical tests to identify them."
She helps the laboratory get a high-throughput method into routine use for bacterial and yeast identification: MALDI-TOF-MS (which stands for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry).
"It’s so fast and it takes about two hours from sample prep to identification that the lab is able to provide results in a timelier fashion," she says with a glint in her eyes.
Cuevas is confident that she can use her data science background to help the microbiologists (and her supervisor, the laboratory director) in analyzing data and generating reports that are sent to the state laboratory (California Department of Public Health).
"Sometimes, I’m called the laboratory’s AI because I use data analytics tools to generate insights that can help in advising health officers (sometimes almost in real-time, depending on what they need). Now, I am training microbiologists in the laboratory to use business intelligence tools like Power BI to help them generate their own reports without taking up too much of their time. This is very useful because the laboratory is currently understaffed."
Dr. Rochie Cuevas at work
Women in Public Health Labs
Many of the public health laboratories in California, she says, are currently led by women. They introduce new technologies at critical times, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic. This, according to her, has incredibly increased the laboratories’ capacities to provide diagnoses when they needed it the most.
"At the beginning of the pandemic, the laboratories could give out results two weeks after samples have been submitted. But now, testing for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus takes under two hours," she says.
Aside from introducing new technologies, women leaders in the public health laboratories invest in people.
"A lot of our time and effort are spent in nurturing the next generation of laboratorians through mentorship and technical training. I guess this is part of our being mission-oriented. Solano County Public Health’s vision is 'Healthy People–Healthy Community'. By continually providing opportunities for microbiologists to practice the profession, we contribute to safeguarding the community from communicable diseases."
She believes that "women leaders are inclusive, embracing diversity and using it at an advantage to make public health laboratories great places to work in. Women are effective leaders because they seek work-life balance: “I am not a fan of multitasking (i.e., starting a lot of projects); rather, I maximize the use of business intelligence tools to get the job done and tend to dive deep into a project and finish what can be done before moving onto the next project. That way, I finish tasks that I have started and gain some semblance of balance."
Women as Science Pioneers
Cuevas could not help but think of her college adviser at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, Dr. Asuncion K. Raymundo, one of the first scientists to apply biotechnology in solving agricultural challenges in the Philippines. "As her student, I worked on understanding the effects of an antibiotic produced by a genetically enhanced bacterium grown in locally available materials on poultry infected with the bacteria causing fowl cholera."
Cuevas graduated magna cum laude in B.S. Biology at the University of the Philippines in 2002. She remembers Dr. Melissa Fitzgerald, the former head of the Grain Quality and Nutrition Centre at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
"She was also one of my PhD supervisors at the University of Queensland (where she finished her PhD in Agricultural Science) in Brisbane, Australia. Her mentorship helped me develop scientific curiosity that helped me ask questions that generated new knowledge where cereal chemistry meets behavioral science and economics."
"Sometimes, I’m called the laboratory’s AI because I use data analytics tools to generate insights that can help in advising health officers (sometimes almost in real-time, depending on what they need)."
Women as Influencers
Cuevas highlighted the essential role of women in the sciences, particularly in public health laboratories as well as her learning as a parent. A person’s worldview is highly influenced by the teachers that he or she encounters. Cuevas thinks that women shape society because they teach children.
"The mother is often a child’s first teacher. Most schoolteachers I have encountered are women, too. As a parent, this responsibility to 'teach a child the way he must go' weighs heavily in my mind."
She finds time to read quite a bit about raising mentally and emotionally strong kids, with the hopes that applying these will help her prepare her child for adulthood.
Women who have mentored Cuevas saw potential in her and pushed her to go where her weaknesses would have prevented her from venturing.
"I wasn’t confident in speaking publicly and I still get nervous before going on stage. I was pushed by my two academic mentors to present in technical conferences, which then forced me to explore my preferred style in making slide decks and talking with a variety of audiences. I was also not good at writing technical articles. Again, I was pushed enough such that I was seeing progress the more I did it."
She has certainly come a long way from when she counted flowering rice plants in experimental fields in the IRRI in Laguna.
Rogelio Constantino Medina was recently featured in New York City's Time Square billboard for three forthcoming awards: 𝑺𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒏 𝑺𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝑩𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑻𝒓𝒊𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒉 & 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝑨𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔; 3rd 𝑷𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑩𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝑨𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑶𝒖𝒕𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑨𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔; and 3rd 𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝑨𝒔𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑷𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝑩𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑨𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 Award. In November 2024, he was recognized in the Amerika Prestige Awards for Inclusive Media Excellence in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.
