Maria Beery is a Core Research Facility Specialist II in the Organ Processing and Pathology Core (OPPC) for the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD) at the University of Florida. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Master's of Science degree from the University of North Florida. Her Master’s thesis research focused on nutrient absorption and amino acid profiling in crustaceans.
Between undergraduate and graduate degrees, Maria worked as a chemist at the University of Florida Racing Laboratory, where she conducted illegal substance testing on racehorses using gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
After joining the OPPC lab at nPOD, Maria has been fortunate to learn and perfect several techniques including live pancreas tissue slice generation, slice culture and perifusion, and fluorescent microscopy. She also contributes to original research, manages image and clinical databases, assists research investigators with their tissue sample requests, and trains lab members. She is in the process of mastering islet isolation from human pancreas and optimizing automated IHC staining for routine screening use.
