Demetria M. Fischesser

Demetria Fischesser is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati in the lab of Dr. Kevin Haworth. She received her Bachelor's degree from Bellarmine University and her PhD from the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology after completing her dissertation work in the lab of Dr. Jeff Molkentin at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.

Dr. Fischesser developed an interest in molecular cardiovascular biology while studying cardiac physiology during her undergraduate career. This interest led to Dr. Fischesser pursuing her graduate degree in the lab of Dr. Jeff Molkentin where she worked on several projects involving understanding the various attributes of activating cardiac fibroblasts. During these studies, she realized that a better understanding of the 3D morphology and behavior of these cells was necessary to understand the full scope of cardiac fibroblast behavior. This led to the development of a novel tissue clearing technique in which genetically-induced cell fluorescence was maintained while the tissue itself was optically cleared.

Following graduate school, Dr. Fischesser accepted a position as a postdoctoral fellow in the Haworth lab at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology. In the Haworth lab, she is studying a novel means of reducing cardiac damage caused by reperfusion injury.