08/22/2026
Pioneer scholar Liliana, from Hamilton, New York, and her father share two particular interests—biology and Pioneer. Her father is a Pioneer professor in the research area of biology, and Liliana credits him with sparking her love of biology, and also with introducing her to the value of online research.
Liliana remembers her father returning from professional conferences with stuffed animals and little trinkets that she enjoyed playing with, and articles on biology that she mostly didn’t pay attention to until one day she tried skimming one and found herself fascinated. She was still very young, she says, but “it really fueled my desire to learn more about the human body, and made me realize that's what I wanted to do when I was older.”
She has done some hands-on lab work as a summer program, and is sure that the “muscle memory” will be useful in future research work. She chose to add the online Pioneer experience to learn more about scientific reading and writing. To be a researcher, she says, “the writing aspect is so important. You need good writing skills, you need good reading comprehension skills, and online research is very helpful.”
Liliana knew she wanted to focus on a neurodegenerative disease, and in consultation with her professor, she settled on Lewy body dementia and how CRISPER Cas9 gene editing might be used to get rid of the protein buildup that causes the disease.
In addition to her passion for biology, Liliana plays the piano, loves watching movies, and has been involved in community service “ever since I was young.” “I feel like it's really healthy to have diverse activities,” she says. Her specific interest in caring for people led her to Le Moyne College’s Direct Entry Physician Assistant program, with an automatic major in biology.
In the video, Liliana describes the process of narrowing down her research topic.
