Biography
- CSR:
- Division of Receipt and Referral – DRR
Dr. Maria DeBernardi is an Assistant Director in the Division of Receipt and Referral (DRR) at the Center for Scientific Review (CSR).
Prior to this position, she served as Scientific Review Officer in the Interdisciplinary Molecular Sciences and Training review group for seven years. Her primary responsibility was the Cell, Computational, and Molecular Biology, Small Business (SBIR/STTR) study section. She also organized Special Review panels (e.g. Program Projects, Biotechnology Resources Centers, Member Conflict panels, Instrumentation and Training Grants panels) and recently ran the Enabling Imaging Technologies, R01 study section. Dr. DeBernardi earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences (Health curriculum) from the University of Milan, Italy. Following post-doctoral training in cancer biology at NCI, NIH, she joined the Dept. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Georgetown University and then the Dept. of Biology at the Johns Hopkins University, where she conducted research on cyclic AMP and calcium signaling pathways and their cross talk. Subsequently, she held the post of Director of Cell Biology R&D at Atto Bioscience, Inc. (then acquired by BD Biosciences) where she obtained NIH funding to support the development of fluorosensors for intracellular second messengers and was influential in the development and commercialization of automated fluorescence microscopy instrumentation for high-content screening. Prior to joining CSR in 2009, Dr. DeBernardi was a Research Associate Professor in the Advanced Technology Laboratory, School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University and served as the Deputy Director of the Microscopy Center, Montgomery County Hopkins Campus, where she managed collaborations and services with government and private research organizations and actively participated in research to advance 3D microscopic imaging.
