Daysi M. Diaz-Diestra, PhD, DABT

Dr. Daysi Diaz-Diestra is a Board-Certified Toxicologist (DABT) and a Biological safety Specialist at NAMSA, where she participates in the biocompatibility risk assessment of medical devices. She obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2019 from the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. Her doctoral research funded by NSF- Institute for Functional Nanomaterials and NIH-Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement doctoral fellowships focused on the development of sensing and drug delivery platforms based on functional engineered nanomaterials and their in-vitro toxicological evaluation.

After graduation, Dr. Diaz-Diestra joined the US FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health as an ORISE postdoctoral research fellow. Her research focused on the biocompatibility assessment of nanoformulations and biodegradable polymers employed in medical devices, particularly looking into the effects of these materials in the vascular endothelium. She continued her postdoctoral training at UNC Chapel Hill as a T32 NIH fellow working on projects related to Nanoparticle-Enabled Cancer Immunotherapy.

Dr. Diaz-Diestra has authored/co-authored 10 peer reviewed publications and presented her work (20+ presentations) at national/international conferences. She has been a SOT member since 2019 and received the HOT Postdoctoral Travel Award in 2020. This past year during 2023 Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology, that took place in Nashville, Tennessee, she co-chaired the workshop entitled “Biocompatibility Assessment of Absorbable/Degradable Materials Employed in Medical Devices: Challenges, Pitfalls, and Emerging Testing Methods.” Currently, she also serves as the AAMI BE-WG17 – Nanomaterials Working Group co-chair where she is leading efforts to work on development and recognition of standards related to biocompatibility evaluation of nano-enabled medical devices.

 

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