Luis Francisco was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. He graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. in molecular biology under the tutelage of Dr. Cristina Negritto where he studied double-strand break repair in S. cerevisiae. After graduating from Pomona College, he spent one year in LA BioMed/Harbor-UCLA Medical Center investigating the role of antimicrobial peptides on infective microbial organisms. In 2016 he moved to Bethesda, Maryland and spent the next three years at the NIH in the Ann Dean Lab studying the role of long-noncoding RNA and long-range enhancer-gene interactions in erythroid progenitor cells. In 2019, he moved to Portland, OR to start the MD/PhD program at OHSU. Luis Francisco is mentored by Dr. Mara Sherman, where he focuses on exploring regulatory genomic elements and changes in the epigenetic landscape during pancreatic cancer progression to metastasis. In his free time, he plays soccer and spends time with his friends and family.