3 History and Evolution of RIPLRT
Knowing where we came from helps you understand why we work the way we do. The RIPLRT has evolved through distinct phases, and the current RIPLRT Institute is the most recent expression of a consistent through-line.
3.1 Origins (2018–2021): the wet-lab phase
RIPLRT began as the Respiratory and Immunology Project and Laboratory Research Team within a College of Biomedical Sciences setting. The early group was organized around wet-lab immunology: human-based immuno-physiological approaches, molecular biology, and the immune effects of airborne pollutants crossing the respiratory barrier in susceptible people — those with asthma, respiratory allergies, and other chronic respiratory conditions. The group was small, focused on a few projects, and centered around the PI’s bench work. The mission was to understand how environmental exposures shape respiratory and immune health, with a focus on Puerto Rico’s unique environmental and health context. An example of this work can be found here.
Even in this phase, the group built infrastructure that was ahead of its time:
- A written lab manual (first created September 2018, revised February 2021), authored collaboratively and version-controlled on GitHub.
- A reproducibility and open-science orientation using R, GitHub, OSF, FigShare, and Zenodo.
- Clear vision, mission, and core values, role definitions, scientific-integrity policy, IRB/CITI compliance, and ICMJE-based authorship.
- A culture of inclusive mentoring and student development.
We acknowledge the past members who built that foundation — it is the backbone of this manual.
3.2 Transition (2021–2024): from bench to hybrid
Over this period the group’s center of gravity shifted from the bench toward a hybrid computational and translational model. Several forces drove this:
- The rise of large, biomarker-rich public repositories and surveillance datasets.
- Biomarker discovery and interpretation as a key to understanding exposure-health links.
- The need to translate insights into population-level forecasting and decision-support tools.
- Maturation of reproducible analytics and AI/ML methods.
- To strategically scale the impact through population-level forecasting and repository-based discovery alongside molecular work.
- A broadening geographic frame to Puerto Rico, the Caribbean basin, the southern coastal United States, and tropical regions worldwide.
3.3 The RIPLRT Institute (2026–): a senior, group-centered institute
Today, RIPLRT operates as the RIPLRT Institute — a senior, group-centered research program rather than a collection of individual projects. The work now spans and intersects from molecular immune modeling to population-level computational modeling, integrated through reproducible pipelines and equity-stratified analysis.
The institutional frame is flexible by design. RIPLRT activities may run through Lynn University, the RIPLRT Institute, Felix E. Rivera-Mariani, PhD LLC, and collaborating institutions and partners, depending on the project, funding, and data-use agreement. Where a specific institutional home matters for a policy (IRB, payroll, data access), the manual flags it as a placeholder for confirmation.
Exact entity names, IRB-of-record, and data-use authorities vary by project. Project pod charters (Chapter 7) record the governing institution, IRB protocol, and data-use agreement for each project. Confirm these with the PI before starting work.
3.4 What has stayed constant
Across every phase, one thing has not changed: the through-line.
Exposure Science → Immune and Biochemical Bioactivity → Computational Forecasting → Equity-Focused Translation → Inclusive Workforce Development
The methods have evolved from pipettes to pipelines, but the mission — understanding environmental drivers of respiratory and immune health and translating that understanding into equity — has been the constant since day one. This manual modernizes the how while protecting the why.