Ernesto Rojas

Biography

Ernesto, an MD/PhD candidate, co-mentored by Diana Laird and Tippi Mackenzie! He was born in Honduras and grew up in Los Angeles. Ernesto attended UCLA and worked in the lab of Amander Clark, studying primate Primordial Germ Cell (PGC)-Like Cell derivations. After taking a gap year to continue his work on primate PGCs, he started medical school at UCSF in 2019. Here, he was involved actively in the Latinx Medical Student Association (LMSA), where he continued to serve as a Senior Advisor. Additionally, he is the VP of Medical Education for the Western Region of LMSA. For his thesis, Ernesto studies the origins of Sacrococcygeal Teratomas, a germ cell tumor, to understand the link between PGCs, pluripotency, and the disease states of germ cell tumors. Ernesto hopes to continue to work in early development as a surgeon-scientist after graduation.