Dr. Olga Rojas is a scientist whose passion for discovery and positive approach to research are undeniable. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Rojas, a professor at the University of Toronto and scientist at the UHN-Krembil Research Institute, to discuss her journey to becoming a scientist, her research on neurodegeneration, and the future of immunology in neurodegenerative research.
Dr. Rojas’ scientific journey – from medical school in Colombia to scientist in Toronto
Dr. Olga Rojas has been interested in health and science for as long as she can remember. “I did the typical thing everyone says and asked my parents for a microscope when I was maybe 6 years old. I wanted to look at the anatomy of everything,” she explained with a laugh. She began her training in Colombia, attending medical school at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. During medical school, Dr. Rojas was introduced to flow cytometry, a technique used in the hospital to measure T cell counts and assess HIV treatment response. However, in a hospital setting, Dr. Rojas was lacking answers to the mechanism behind how these T cell counts changed. Towards the end of her medical school training, she began looking for positions that combined her love for clinical practice with the ability to answer her fundamental immunological questions. This was where Dr. Rojas met her PhD mentors – Drs. Juana Angel and Manuel Franco, medical doctors running a fundamental immunology lab at the same university where she was conducting her medical training. She knew this was the place for her.
While obtaining her PhD in Colombia, Dr. Rojas gained valuable immunological experience investigating the impact of age on the protective immunity against rotavirus – a harmful virus that infects the gut. In this position, her work focused entirely on humans. Dr. Rojas looks back on her PhD fondly, citing how rewarding this work was, but there was something missing.
“I enjoy working with patients, but I struggled to understand papers which involved mice, because there was no animal facility in Colombia at the time. I always wanted to do animal research to then have more knowledge and tools to translate into patients and diseases.”
This is what led Dr. Rojas to join Dr. Jennifer Gommerman’s lab at UofT, which studies multiple sclerosis (MS) using mouse models of MS. While she had very little prior experience with MS, Dr. Rojas looked onward with enthusiasm. “I had done a little with MS in humans back in Colombia, so I was excited to work on this in mice!”
I asked Dr. Rojas what the most exciting moment of her research career has been thus far. “Getting into [Dr. Gommermann’s] lab was very exciting. I was so happy to be learning new things.” Dr. Rojas also cites the publication of her post-doctoral work in Cell about the migration of immune cells from the gut to the brain as the most difficult, but also the most exciting, work she has ever done. The paper, published in 2019, used a mouse model of MS to demonstrate that immune cells can travel from the gut to the brain to suppress neuroinflammation. Since its publication, the paper has been cited over 370 times, and Dr. Rojas is proud to see that many years of collaborative effort are making such an impact.
“It has opened new avenues of immunology [research] in the brain. It is rewarding to know you can contribute to science.”
Delving into neurodegeneration:
Dr. Rojas’ newfound understanding of the potential role of immune responses in brain disease inspired her to search for the underlying immune mechanisms behind other forms of neurodegeneration. “We have a lot of knowledge of the immune response in MS,” Dr. Rojas explains. “Why don’t we take all [that] knowledge and translate it to Alzheimer’s disease?” Dr. Rojas’ lab at the Krembil Research Institute is doing just that. Using mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease, her lab focuses on understanding how immune cells from the gut can migrate to the brain to influence neurodegeneration and inflammation in the brain.
Dr. Rojas is also continually motivated by advances in neurodegenerative research. Most recently, scientists have been working to provide a detailed description of the vasculature within the brain and the meninges (the membranes that ensheathe the brain and spinal cord). There is growing evidence suggesting that immune cells outside of the brain (like from the gut) can travel to the skull, meninges, and brain and communicate with existing resident immune cells. “We still can’t imagine the impact that this will have [on research],” Dr. Rojas excitedly told me – with almost a twinkle in her eye.
Dr. Rojas acknowledged that despite these new findings, research on neurodegenerative processes is not without its challenges. Unlike other diseases that can be diagnosed early, it is difficult to detect diseases like Alzheimer’s at onset. “You have to wait until the patient goes to the clinic with clear symptoms of dementia. By that point, it is already too late to see how the disease started. We still do not have good biomarkers to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease earlier,” Dr. Rojas states. In terms of preclinical work, there is still a lack of good models for Alzheimer’s disease. There are mouse models for early-onset Alzheimer’s, but there are very few models for late-onset disease, and those that exist are still relatively new. Dr. Rojas’ lab is using these new mouse models of late-onset disease to determine how immune cell migration from the gut to the brain may vary at different stages of Alzheimer’s disease.
Advice from Dr. Rojas
Speaking with Dr. Rojas, it was clear to see the passion she has for scientific investigation. At the end of our much-enjoyed interview, I asked about any advice she may have for current immunology trainees. Dr. Rojas answered with one inspiring word: “Dream.” I was moved by the simplicity of the statement. As scientists, we often get overwhelmed with deadlines and forget why we began doing research in the first place. “Believe in yourself and know that you can do big things,” Dr. Rojas continued with a look of encouragement. “We all need to build up some resilience,” she said.
“Even a negative result means something. You aren’t closing a door; you are opening many new doors that may lead to you what you are really looking for.”
Adriana Zutic
