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Neuroscientist from US-Mexico border dismantles science’s class problem from the inside

Dr. Christian Cazares, UCSD postdoctoral fellow, funds students, removes GRE barriers, and brings neuroscience to underserved communities

Genomic Press

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Christian Cazares, PhD, University of California, San Diego, USA.

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Credit: Christian Cazares, PhD

LA JOLLA, California, USA, 17 March 2026 — A first-generation college student who once needed research stipends to pay rent has spent the last decade building the infrastructure to ensure others do not face the same calculus. Dr. Christian Cazares, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego, grew up in Calexico, California, a border town where more than eighty percent of his schoolmates qualified for the free lunch program. In a new interview published today in the Genomic Press journal Brain Medicine, Dr. Cazares speaks with unusual candor about the financial, linguistic, and geographic barriers that shaped his trajectory, and about what he has done, systematically, to dismantle them.

A Zip Code That Determines Outcomes

The defining pivot in Dr. Cazares’ research came not from a laboratory result but from a family visit. His nephew, who has autism spectrum disorder and lives in Calexico, was hours away from the nearest specialists. The burden of time, travel, and cost that his family endured to access healthcare services made something abstract suddenly steer his research vision.

“The burdens of time, travel, and cost that my family endured just to access basic services made clear to me how much the zip code you are born in determines outcomes,” Dr. Cazares said.

That recognition led him to the laboratory of Dr. Bradley Voytek, whose work on extracting physiologically meaningful measures from scalp EEG offered something rare: a method that is portable, affordable, and does not require proximity to a major medical center. The choice was both scientific and moral. EEG is the instrument; equity is the ambition.

Biomarkers Built to Travel

Dr. Cazares is now pursuing three interconnected research directions. He is establishing correspondence between patient EEG and cortical organoid activity, comparing signals from children with autism to organoids derived from those same patients. He is also identifying transcriptomic signatures associated with aberrant electrophysiological signals in a mouse model of Rett syndrome through single-nucleus RNA sequencing. A third line of inquiry links cortical electrophysiology to innate and reflexive behaviors in patients with intellectual disabilities who cannot complete complex laboratory tasks.

“I envision a future in which a patient’s EEG and clinical assessments guide high-throughput screening of personalized therapeutics in brain organoids derived from that patient,” he said. “Most importantly, because EEG is non-invasive, portable, and inexpensive, I hope these biomarkers can someday reach underserved communities far from major medical centers, reducing the disparities that delayed my own nephew’s diagnosis.”

Removing the Gatekeepers

Dr. Cazares co-founded Colors of the Brain in 2016 as a first-year graduate student, alongside three colleagues, before he had even passed his qualifying examination. The nonprofit has raised and managed over two hundred thirty thousand dollars, supported five cohorts of scholars, and produced graduates now enrolled in doctoral programs and leading the organization themselves. The program offers the highest stipends among UCSD summer undergraduate research programs, because unpaid research experiences favor students who can afford to work for free.

Around the same period, Dr. Cazares served as student chair of his graduate program’s executive committee and advocated for the removal of the GRE requirement from graduate admissions at UCSD, presenting research on the test’s inability to predict student outcomes and its documented harm to low-income applicants. The committee agreed. The year was 2018, before the broader movement to drop the GRE had gained national momentum.

“One financial barrier that I think should continue to be scrutinized is the use of standardized tests like the GRE as gatekeepers to higher education,” he said.

Language as the Last Wall

Language, Dr. Cazares argues, is inseparable from class when science is concerned. Around eighty percent of journals are published in English, and scientific journalism worldwide depends heavily on English-only sources. He founded BrainBorders to provide bilingual neuroscience education in Calexico and nearby cities. He organized a Spanish-language workshop at the Society for Neuroscience in 2025, and he is preparing a workshop conducted entirely in Spanish on his postdoctoral laboratory’s analytical tools at CETYS, a university in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.

“I realized I couldn’t even present my own research in Spanish, and I started asking myself why,” he said.

His philosophy is spare and unambiguous. Asked for the aphorism that best encapsulates his life, he offered three words: science is political. For Dr. Cazares, that is not a provocation. It is a description of what science has always been, and what it can, with effort, become otherwise.

Dr. Christian Cazares’s Genomic Press interview is part of a larger series called Innovators and Ideas that highlights the people behind today’s most influential scientific breakthroughs. Each interview in the series offers a blend of cutting-edge research and personal reflections, providing readers with a comprehensive view of the scientists shaping the future. By combining a focus on professional achievements with personal insights, this interview style invites a richer narrative that both engages and educates readers. This format provides an ideal starting point for profiles that explore the scientist’s impact on the field, while also touching on broader human themes. More information on the research leaders and rising stars featured in our Innovators and Ideas – Genomic Press Interview series can be found on our interview website: https://interviews.genomicpress.com/.

The Genomic Press Interview in Brain Medicine titled “Christian Cazares: Confronting science’s class problem,” is freely available via Open Access, starting on 17 March 2026 in Brain Medicine at the following hyperlink: https://doi.org/10.61373/bm026k.0021.

About Brain Medicine: Brain Medicine (ISSN: 2997-2639, online and 2997-2647, print) is a peer-reviewed medical research journal published by Genomic Press, New York. Brain Medicine is a new home for the cross-disciplinary pathway from innovation in fundamental neuroscience to translational initiatives in brain medicine. The journal’s scope includes the underlying science, causes, outcomes, treatments, and societal impact of brain disorders, across all clinical disciplines and their interface.

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Christian Cazares: Confronting science’s class problem.

 

Colors of the Brain mentors and scholars, 2023.

Credit

Christian Cazares, PhD

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Journal

Brain Medicine

DOI

10.61373/bm026k.0021 

Method of Research

News article

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Christian Cazares: Confronting science’s class problem

Article Publication Date

17-Mar-2026

 

Smart bandage could heal and monitor wounds at the same time

Australian researchers have unlocked the possibility of creating smart wound dressings that enable real-time monitoring while also delivering healing agents in one simple, scalable platform.

RMIT University

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The smart wound patch's dual function could support more timely and effective intervention from clinicians.  

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Credit: RMIT University

Smart bandage could heal and monitor wounds at the same time

Chronic wounds cause significant burdens on healthcare systems due to the complexities of continuous and changing care required.  

Smart wound dressings that monitor infection or deliver healing therapeutics have emerged as a solution, but combining both monitoring and healing functions into one dressing has proven complex, until now.   

Researchers at RMIT University created a method of embedding tiny, multi-functional nanomaterials — known as carbon dots — into hydrogel dressing that serve the dual functions of monitoring and treating wounds.   

Carbon dots are biocompatible carbon-based nanoparticles that can be used to image and sense changes in a wound and combat wound inflammation as therapeutic artificial enzymes (nanozymes).  

This new type of smart wound patch will change colour when there is pH change in the wound caused by infection. The colour change can be easily read out by portable smart devices. When these infection signals are detected, the system automatically releases therapeutic nanozymes into the wound to promote healing. The release of these therapeutic nanozymes can also be manually triggered by applying gentle pressure to the dressing, allowing clinicians or patients to provide additional treatment if required.  

RMIT PhD candidate and study first author Nan Nan said the dual nature of this smart wound patch would support more timely and effective intervention from clinicians.   

“Being able to address potential infection at the earliest opportunity is critical to chronic wound management, making this real-time system a potential game-changer for healthcare,” she said. Nan said their system using multifunctional carbon dots also cuts down on the complexity that typically comes with constructing smart wound dressings.   

“Our fabrication process using medically ready materials, such as hydrogels, to embed carbon dots for wound dressing is easy and scalable, with strong potential for commercial translation,” she said.   

Collaborator and Senior Lecturer at RMIT’s School of Engineering, Dr Haiyan Li, said their innovation provided a promising and adaptive platform that overcame some of the barriers that have stopped smart wound dressings being brought to market.   

“Many smart wound dressings developed in research laboratories are difficult to translate into real clinical products because they rely on complex designs or expensive sensing systems,” she said.  

 “Our approach integrates sensing and dual-mode therapeutic functions into a single dressing with a simple, streamlined design, which helps address some of the key challenges that have previously limited commercial translation.”  

“Importantly, this work has defined concise design rules for future smart dressings.”  

Next steps  

These initial studies were done at the lab scale, with validation in appropriate in vivo wound models being a key future step.   

Researchers are looking to partner up with industry to refine and scale up the technology and bring smart wound patches to market.   

Study lead and Senior Lecturer at RMIT’s School of Engineering, Dr Lei Bao says that next steps will focus on further biological testing and preparing the technology for real-world applications.  

“Our next step is to evaluate how this technology performs in more advanced biological models and to work with industry partners to refine the design for real clinical use,” she said.  

“Ultimately, our goal is to translate this research into practical smart wound dressings and integrate this smart platform into a digital health ecosystem, where the data from the patch is collected, analysed, and used to drive clinical decisions to advance chronic wound management.”  

The team used RMIT’s cutting-edge Micro Nano Research Facility and Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility to conduct this research. 

‘Carbon-dot nanozyme-empowered responsive hydrogels for smart wound dressing’ was published in Chemical Engineering Science (DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2025.123225) 

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Journal

Chemical Engineering Science

DOI

10.1016/j.ces.2025.123225 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

Carbon-dot nanozyme-empowered responsive hydrogels for smart wound dressing

Article Publication Date

15-Mar-2026

 

A robot that endures over one million uses -- Then becomes compost to nourish plants

Seoul National University College of Engineering

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Fully compostable soft robot system

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Credit: © Nature Sustainability, originally published in Nature Sustainability



The rapid proliferation of robots and electronic devices is placing the world under a new and growing environmental burden. According to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), global electronic waste (e-waste) reached approximately 62 million metric tons in 2022, a significant portion of which was neither properly collected nor recycled but instead landfilled or incinerated. As soft robots are increasingly adopted across diverse sectors—including healthcare, agriculture, and environmental exploration—end-of-life robotic systems are emerging as a new source of next-generation e-waste. In particular, soft robots and their associated electronic systems are typically constructed from multilayer thin-film architectures composed of thermoset polymer elastomers, metal alloys, and extrinsic semiconductors. These heterogeneous material combinations make recycling virtually impossible and prevent natural degradation, leading to growing concerns that such technologies are fundamentally unsustainable.

 

In response to these challenges, a SNU–Sogang–JKU joint research team led by Professor Seung-Kyun Kang at Seoul National University, Professor Sang-Yup Kim at Sogang University, and Professor Martin Kaltenbrunner at Johannes Kepler University Linz has developed a fully biodegradable and compostable soft robotic electronic system that maintains high performance and durability during operation yet completely returns to nature after use. The team employed a water-free biodegradable elastomer, poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS), as the structural material for the robotic frame, enabling the realization of soft actuators with low hysteresis and excellent elastic recovery. The PGS-based bending actuator exhibited remarkable durability, maintaining nearly unchanged bending angles and output forces even after one million actuation cycles, and preserving stable performance after long-term storage. In addition, biodegradable inorganic electronic components composed of magnesium (Mg), molybdenum (Mo), and silicon (Si) were integrated to incorporate curvature, strain, tactile, temperature, humidity, and pH sensors, along with heaters, electrical stimulators, and drug-delivery modules, into a single soft robotic finger—demonstrating a highly integrated, multifunctional biodegradable electronic platform. When the entire robotic system was subjected to industrial composting conditions, both the structural framework and electronic components decomposed within a few months. Plant growth tests conducted using the resulting compost confirmed the absence of environmental toxicity.

 

Professor Kang stated, “This research overcomes the limitations traditionally associated with biodegradable materials and demonstrates soft robotic and electronic systems with practical levels of durability and performance, setting a new benchmark for sustainable robotics.” Dr. Kyung-Sub Kim added, “By simultaneously achieving high performance, complete biodegradability, and ecological safety, this platform is expected to serve as a foundational technology for the transition toward environmentally responsible robotics and electronics.” The study presents a fundamental solution to the growing waste problem associated with robotics and electronic devices and introduces a new paradigm in which intelligent machines complete their missions and return to the soil—not as waste, but as part of nature.

The study was published in Nature Sustainability

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-026-01780-4

A video demonstration is available here:

https://youtu.be/AFVIGgntKm8?si=t6gc0rbqwgoCnCQu

 

□ Introduction to the SNU College of Engineering

Seoul National University (SNU) founded in 1946 is the first national university in South Korea. The College of Engineering at SNU has worked tirelessly to achieve its goal of ‘fostering leaders for global industry and society.’ In 12 departments, 323 internationally recognized full-time professors lead the development of cutting-edge technology in South Korea and serving as a driving force for international development.

 

Branch pruning via joule heating (left) and a drug delivery system for plant treatment (center and right)

 

Biodegradation of the soft robotic finger

Credit

© Nature Sustainability, originally published in Nature Sustainability

Journal

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-026-01780-4 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Biodegradable yet hyperdurable robotic fingers for zero-waste soft electronics

Article Publication Date

15-Mar-2026