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Virginia Pascual Figure 1 was born in Madrid, Spain, on May 22, 1958, and grew up in Ceuta, Spain. She received her bachelor's degree from Centro de Estudios Universita-rios-San Pablo, Madrid, in 1975, and her medical degree from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, in 1981. She was a resident in pediatrics at Hospital "12 de Octubre," Universidad Complutense, Madrid, from 1982 to 1986. Her last year of residency was spent doing pediatric gastroenterology. She moved to the USA in 1987 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSWMC). After completing that fellowship, she became a research assistant professor in the same department and during that period also completed a fellowship in pediatric rheumatology in the Department of Pediatrics at UTSWMC. From 1995 to 2002, Dr. Pascual was assistant professor of pediatrics and microbiology at UTSWMC, and from 1998 to 2004 she was director of the Division of Pediatric Rheumatology at UTSWMC. In 1999, she moved to the Baylor Institute of Immunology Research (BIIR) as assistant investigator; in 2004, she became associate investigator and in 2006 a full investigator at BIIR.
Figure 1
Dr. Virginia Pascual during the interview.
Dr. Pascual's research endeavors have focused mainly on systemic lupus erythematosus and juvenile arthritis. She has received a number of grants, mainly from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to support her investigations. She has been very productive in her research. Her curriculum vitae lists 53 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals plus 31 chapters and reviews in either books or medical journals. During the last 4 years, she has lectured around the world at a number of prominent meetings. She is also a very nice woman. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to talk to her for 2½ hours. She is a real credit to Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC).
William Clifford Roberts, MD (hereafter, Roberts): Dr. Pascual, I appreciate your willingness to talk to me and therefore to the readers of BUMC Proceedings. To start, could you discuss your early life, some of your early memories, your parents, your siblings, and your environs?
Virginia Pascual, MD (hereafter, Pascual): I was born in Madrid, Spain, but grew up in Ceuta, Spain Figure 2, located in...