Misty Jeanne Eaton, Ph.D.

Dr. Misty Eaton was a distinguished neuroscientist and a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Universidad Central del Caribe. She was known for her active and productive research, which focused on the characterization of potassium channels in glial cells, highlighting their functional roles in homeostatic mechanisms.

Born in Sutton, Massachusetts, she graduated from Auburn High in 1978 and pursued higher education at Boston University and earned her Ph.D. in 1990 from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. Moving to San Juan, PR In 1996, she became a beloved member of the community. Throughout her career, Dr. Eaton exemplified the institutional aims of teaching, research, and service. She was deeply committed to promoting research at UCC, securing NIH and external grant support from 1996 to the present, totaling over $4 million in direct and indirect funds. She began her tenure as a Principal Investigator of the RCMI Program and coordinated the RCMI-funded Common Instrumentation Area and Services Core facility at UCC for over 20 years. This facility offered valuable services to investigators, providing access to shared instrumentation and the expertise of an electronics technician and a machinist/handyman.

Additionally, Dr. Eaton served as the Director of the RCMI-funded Neuroscience Research Center and as the Associate Scientific Director of the Integrative Center for Glial Research. Later, she was appointed Co-director of the RCMI Program at UCC. Her leadership extended to professional organizations, where she served as President of the Puerto Rico Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience and organized several conferences and symposia, including the Annual Puerto Rico Neuroscience Conference and the Annual Caribe Glia Mini-Symposium. Her strong collaborations with researchers from the mainland USA and Europe facilitated these successful events.

In 2019, Dr. Eaton became the Director of the RISE Program, a role she held until February 2024. Despite her administrative responsibilities, she remained passionate about conducting research, submitting numerous proposals throughout her career. As a senior researcher, she received funding from the American Diabetes Association and NIH R15 and SC1 grants. Her most recent proposal, submitted in October 2023, received an outstanding score from NIH and is set to begin in July 2024, continuing through 2027, with a total budget of $389,424.

Dr. Eaton was an accomplished scholar, with 71 peer-reviewed publications as a first or co-author in high-impact journals and 25 scientific presentations at various seminars and symposiums. She also contributed her expertise as a member of the IACUC and several institutional committees.

Dr. Misty Eaton will be profoundly missed for her professionalism, dedication, impact in research, and unwavering support of UCC. She will be remembered as a humble, strong, and kind individual. Dr. Misty Eaton you will be deeply missed.