After graduating in computer science at the Politécnico Gracolombiano University in Bogota, Colombia, Maria Virginia Ruiz Cuevas, continues her master’s studies abroad. She got accepted by the prestigious Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France, where she completed a master’s degree in computer science with a specialization in bioinformatics and modelling. Upon completion of her degree, she was invited by the IRIC for an interview with the institute’s principal researchers in Canada. As a result of this recruitment event, she chooses to come to Montreal to work in an innovative project in which challenges are shared between the fields of biology and computer science. Her research project, co-directed by both Drs. Claude Perreault and Sébastien Lemieux, focuses on the study of the cells governing the immune system and aims to complete the human immunopeptidome repertoire in order to develop immuno-therapeutic protocols. Learn about Maria Virginia’s project The non-canonical proteome uniquely populates the proteome or immunopeptidome.