Before his time at the Allen Institute Javier studied Medicine at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) and after graduating he practiced as a general physician in a vascular surgery clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. He also validated his medical studies in the US. Following this he also pursued a Master's degree in Clinical Research at UC San Diego where he became interested in stem cell translational research, and ultimately led him to basic research.After this experience, he volunteered in Dr. Gene Yeo's lab at UCSD where he assisted in a project studying Fragile X Syndrome. There he managed a large colony of mice and performing procedures on neonate mice as well as downstream protein characterization of mouse brain tissues after putative therapeutic intervention with antisense-oligonucleotides.Javier joined the Allen Institute for Cell Science in summer 2023. He works as a Postbaccalaureate Research Assistant in the Stem Cells Gene Editing team, where he uses CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering to produce fluorescent protein-tagged iPSC lines.