Lizbeth Luna-Lopez’s Journey Towards a Brighter Future

June 9, 2025 Staff

Meet Lizbeth Natasha Luna-Lopez, a recent graduate of Durham’s City of Medicine Academy (CMA) and American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Project SEED student under the mentorship of Dr. Caroline Proulx in the Department of Chemistry.

Lizbeth was part of a small cohort of students from around the research triangle to be accepted into the North Carolina section of the ACS’s Project SEED program, which provides hands-on laboratory-based research experience for high school students, followed by opportunities to present research and to receive assistance from the program’s research and scholarship coordinators.

In the Proulx lab, Lizbeth worked with graduate student Ellen Warner, learning about how different chemicals and green solvents affect making peptides, short chains of amino acids linked together. She even had the opportunity to present her research at the 2024 SERMACS meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

Members of the Proulx lab in the Department of Chemistry at NC State University.

Lizbeth and her colleagues at the ACS SERMACS last October.

Lizbeth and her mentor, Ph.D. candidate Ellen Warner, at the Proulx lab.

Adding to her impressive scientific journey, Lizbeth is one of eight students in the NC International Science Challenge who will present their research at the University of Nagoya in Nagoya, Japan, in June.

Lizbeth will be continuing her education this fall at Harvard University with a full scholarship from the Gates Scholarship, a truly remarkable accomplishment. She plans to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering. Her big dream? To become a dentist and provide affordable dental care to families who need it most.

Her time at CMA and working as a Project SEED student in the Proulx research group prepared her for this path. At CMA, Lizbeth led the HOSA-Future Health Professionals club and received real-world experience helping patients at the Durham VA Hospital and The Forest at Duke retirement center. In the Proulx lab, she learned valuable research and communication skills, which serve as a solid foundation for her future studies in STEM.

So, what keeps Lizbeth going? She says it’s her parents. They came to this country to give her a better life, and she always tries her best to make them proud and show them how grateful she is for their hard work.

Lizbeth’s story is a shining example of what can be achieved through hard work, big dreams, and the support of mentors and family. As she heads to Harvard, she’s not just starting college; she’s taking a step closer to making a real difference in the world.

This post was originally published in Department of Chemistry.