As vice president of chemistry for the biopharmaceutical company AN2 Therapeutics, UC Santa Cruz alumnus Vince Hernandez leads its research on treatments for neglected tropical diseases afflicting those in the developing world–but that the giant drugmakers ignore because they see no profit.
Think African sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease that is 100% fatal if left untreated and enters the central nervous system, or Chagas disease, a similar illness that is the leading infectious cause of heart disease in Latin America, according to Hernandez. Drug candidates for both ailments from AN2, and his previous employer Anacor Pharmaceuticals, are proving effective in preclinical or human clinical trials, thanks to an underdog chemical approach he first learned about at UC Santa Cruz.
That wasn't his first encounter with college. After graduating from Watsonville High School, Hernandez first went to the University of Southern California. But just a few years in, he felt emotionally unprepared, didn't do well, and returned home. Growing up in a rural community, raised by parents who didn't go to college, he had no educational role models.
However, his parents did make sure their children understood the importance of attending college. So Hernandez enrolled in a local community college and discovered that he loved the hands-on work in his chemistry lab. His professor saw the passion and potential, and encouraged Hernandez to join a newly formed program that helped community college students from underrepresented backgrounds transfer to a four-year university to pursue a career in STEM.
That was 30 years ago, and Hernandez became one of the first alumni of that program to graduate with a science degree from UC Santa Cruz—and go on to a successful career in the field. Prior to his VP role at AN2, Hernandez directed medical chemistry for a pharmaceutical startup where he co-invented two FDA-approved drugs–also based on the chemistry he first learned about at UC Santa Cruz—and helped position the firm for an eventual $5.2 billion acquisition by Pfizer.
"I'm so grateful to the program. It synergized my career and the decisions that I made," Hernandez said. "It's the absolute right entry point: targeting community-college students. That's where you have the most impact in terms of making a difference, and giving them a leg up to get into a university, exposing them to the sciences, and putting them on a path."
Now, after three decades of showing ambitious, underrepresented community-college students like Hernandez was how to thrive in STEM careers, the program in its present form is coming to a close. Known on campus as ACCESS, the research-training program was founded and led by chemistry professor Phil Crews. But its biggest funder, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is ending its support this year.
Continuing the success
Fellow UC Santa Cruz chemistry professors Ted Holman and Laura Sanchez—along with partners in the community—seek to continue the program and have been working hard over the last year to find new funding sources and set up the next iteration of the program. By necessity, it will have to be scaled down, and as a result, will look and operate differently than ACCESS.
The new program has a website, and the professors are cautiously optimistic that they've secured enough pledges to conduct a pilot this summer while they wait for review of their NIH proposal. During this transition period, Monterey Peninsula College (MPC) will select four students to participate in UC Santa Cruz’s annual 10-week Summer Research Institute through their involvement in the community college’s MESA (Math, Engineering, Science Achievement) Program.
In their proposal to the NIH submitted this fall, Holman and Sanchez pointed to ACCESS’s impressive track record as evidence for support. Over its 30-year history, about 400 students have gone through the ACCESS program, and around 90% have transferred to four-year universities and earned a degree in STEM, according to Holman.
But there are no guarantees when it comes to grant applications, so they are appealing to anyone who shares the desire to help ambitious young adults realize a future in STEM research that might not otherwise be open to them.
"We want to help these students understand what it is to be a scientist. If we achieve this, then we open up the idea of graduate research to these students who haven't historically gone that route," Holman said. "Having this scientific experience not only gives them confidence to do research, but also the confidence to be a STEM student.”
MPC to UCSC
If ultimately fully funded, the MPC2SC Program will start by identifying 10 students at the community college during their freshman year. They will then be guided through a targeted curriculum that will prepare them to transfer to UC Santa Cruz the fall of their junior year. The students will receive a stipend and tuition support during the last semester of their sophomore year at MPC.
Then, before they begin attending UC Santa Cruz in the fall, the students will enter the longstanding, 10-week Summer Research Institute—with over 30 faculty on Science Hill to potentially work with. For their first full year on campus, the students will continue to work in their research lab, receive a stipend, and be given partial tuition support. During their entire junior year and first quarter of their senior year, the students will also benefit from a variety of support services, such as advising, tutoring, research support and community building.
Funds will also be provided for the students to attend scientific conferences to present their research at a national meeting that foster participation from students from underrepresented backgrounds. By being affiliated with a lab, receiving financial and educational support, the program will mitigate any first-year transfer challenges and help them not only survive, but thrive, Holman said.
Of the nearly 30 MPC students who participated in ACCESS over the last five years, close to 80% have transferred to a four-year university. Nearly 70% of MPC students who participated in summer research at UC Santa Cruz have transferred to “R1” institutions, compared to the community college’s institutional R1 transfer rate of 15%.
These statistics are represented in the stories of ACCESS alumni like Valery Ortiz, who graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2023 with a B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical and biological sciences at the Scripps Research Institute.
Strong bonds
The strength of the collaboration with Monterey Peninsula College is reflected in the relationship with Rushia Turner, who received her Ph.D. in chemistry from UC Santa Cruz in 2011 and has taught freshman chemistry at the community college for the last decade. Turner is 100% committed to continuing the work of helping ensure a more diverse and inclusive future for the biomedical research field.
“I'm helping my students, and their lives are being transformed,” said Turner, who will lead MPC2SC’s efforts on her campus. “It's tremendously rewarding when you send a student into a Ph.D. program in a STEM discipline, when they initially came to you having no idea what they were going to do with their life.”
Turner’s role in the program also allows her to maintain close ties with Holman, who she’s known since taking an inorganic chemistry course he taught in 2003, and with Sanchez, who was working toward a Ph.D. in chemistry at the same time as Turner.
“We’re carrying forward the successful model that began in 1994 to continue the Science Division’s tradition of easing the transition from community college to baccalaureate universities, and motivating underrepresented students to pursue biomedical research,” Sanchez said.
To support the program, please visit MPC2SC online.
