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Mari DeMarco

Clinical Professor

About

Dr. DeMarco is a Clinical Chemist for St. Paul’s Hospital, Providence Health Care, a Clinical Professor at the UBC Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation.

Her lab’s overall focus is on impacting patient care through the development of new and/or improved biofluid tests for peptide and protein biomarkers, and the translation of these tests into routine care. Dr. DeMarco was named as a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar for her work developing biofluid diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s disease and related forms of dementia.

Dr. DeMarco is an active member of her research and professional communities, for example, participating in guideline development for clinical laboratory standards for mass spectrometry assays, serving on the board of editors for the leading journal in laboratory medicine, and taking leadership roles in professional organizations such as the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Mass Spectrometry: Applications to the Clinical Lab and the BC Association of Clinical Scientists.

Education & Training

  • BSc, Honors Biochemistry (major), Mathematics (minor), Computational Chemistry (concentration), Mercyhurst University
  • PhD, Medicinal Chemistry, Biomolecular Structure and Design Program, University of Washington
  • Diplomate of the American Board of Clinical Chemistry
  • Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Clinical Biochemistry

Area of Interest

With a strong interest in bridging basic biomedical science, analytical chemistry, and laboratory medicine, Dr. DeMarco’s research group specializes in new methodological approaches for identification and quantitation of protein biomarkers of health and disease. A particular focus is advancing clinical diagnostics for neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. Another area of focus is the development of streamlined proteomic workflows suitable for implementation of clinical mass spectrometric assays in hospital laboratories. The work to translate new biomedical discoveries into patient care is accomplished in collaboration with clinicians and scientists at the UBC Centre for Brain Health, the Clinic for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders and HLI.

Lab Webpage

https://www.demarcolab.ca/

Publications