Graduate Student
University of Pittsburgh/Magee Womens Research Institute
Marrisa is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is a trainee at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Magee-Womens Research Institute. Marrisa has been awarded the CTSI TL-1 Pre-doctoral fellowship through the ICRE. Her major research focus has been to understand the pathogenesis of synthetic mesh complications which cause significant morbidity in affected women and have been the target of litigation world-wide. More recently, she has been working on the development of novel regenerative materials that can be used in multiple therapeutic applications to address problems such as pelvic organ prolapse, maternal birth injury, and vaginal agenesis. In her career as an academic scientist, Marrisa hopes to continue her research focus on tissue-specific extracellular matrices, including mechanical and chemical cues, soft tissue properties, and reciprocal ECM - cellular interactions, especially in the fields of womens health and regenerative medicine.