Maria Elisa Smith

Hi, I'm Maria Elisa Smith. Welcome to my profile!

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Maria Elisa Smith is a clinical research program assistant at Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, MD. She coordinates various community based research projects involving wounds in diverse and underserved populations in Baltimore City. She primarily works with investigating risk factors for wounds in injection drug users in partnership with the Baltimore City Needle Exchange Program. She is currently applying to medical school and hopes to pursue clinical and community based research as a physician.

Clinical Research Program Assistant at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

June 2012 - Present | Baltimore, MD

P.I. Kristine Johnson, M.D. and Jonathan Zenilman, M.D. * Investigate the natural history of chronic wounds and abscesses in the active injection drug user population by conducting surveys and providing wound care on mobile needle exchange vans in different parts of Baltimore City. * Analyze survey data using Stata and Microsoft Access * Investigate wound healing in HIV positive patients through clinical observation and by obtaining cultures of the wounds over time * Characterize the microbiome in wounds of HIV positive patients through PCR analysis and how the microbiome changes over time * Literature review and study design for a study on Sickle Cell Anemia

Volunteer and Interpreter at Floating Doctors

October 2011 - December 2011 | Bocas del Toro, Panama

Volunteered for one week in October (16-23) and one week in December (7-14). 1. Volunteered in mobile clinics to the islands in Bocas del Toro, Panama to provide primary care to remote indigenous Ngobe communities. 2. Recorded patient histories, distributed medications, assisted with interpretations between Spanish and English.

Undergraduate Researcher and Research Assistant at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

September 2010 - August 2011 | Baltimore, MD

Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Molecular Immunology and Microbiology, Malaria Research Institute, Principal Investigator: Isabelle Coppens, Ph.D., 1. Investigated the host-parasite interaction of liver stage Plasmodium yoelii through experimentation 2. Topics included: ceremide scavenging, localization of CERT, Rab protein sequestration, autophagy, manipulation of the Golgi in infected hepatocytes 3. Techniques: tissue culture, DNA isolation, gel electrophoresis, Lipofectamine transfections, Nucleofection, mosquito salivary gland dissection, infection of hepatocytes with Plasmodium sporozoites, immunofluorescence assays, TLC, fluorescence microscopy, Volocity deconvolution and Z-stack software

Family Resource Desk Bilingual Volunteer at Health Leads

September 2009 - May 2011 | Baltimore, MD

Health Leads Baltimore 1. Provided resources to Spanish-speaking families at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Children's Medical Practice who needed assistance with food, medical insurance, education and housing 2. Followed up with clients on a weekly basis to track their usage of resources

The Johns Hopkins University

2009 – 2013

B.S., B.A.

Concentration: Molecular and Cellular Biology, History of Science, Technology and Medicine

Activities: Pre-medical honor societies, volunteering, undergraduate research

Duke University

2011 – 2011

Study Abroad

Concentration: Tropical Medicine and Global Health

Activities: Field work involving medicinal plants and plant biology. Field trips to public health and health care establishments in Costa Rica, Running primary care clinic, Research project on the burden of intestinal parasites in migrant children living in Southern Costa Rica.

Medicine, internal medicine, pathology, infectious diseases, cell biology, tropical medicine, history of medicine, anatomy, Peruvian pan pipes, Salsa dancing, cooking, baking, squash sport, running, hiking