Campus Connection

[caption id="attachment_4939" align="alignright" width="240"] Tara Marti[/caption]

Alumna recognized as a leader in the next generation of healthcare

Alumna Tara (Weiler) Marti, ‘10, has been recognized nationally as a future leader and innovator of pathology and laboratory medicine. Marti received the American Society for Clinical Pathology’s (ASCP) 40 Under Forty award for 2015. This award acknowledges 40  pathologists, residents and laboratory professionals across the U.S., under the age of forty, who are seen as the “future of laboratory leadership.” With the award, Marti was asked to contribute to the 40 Under Forty blog, provide a personal video and was enrolled in a lab management program. Marti was able to start her position as a molecular pathology development technologist at Marshfield Clinic with a wealth of lab experience from her undergraduate experiences. The microbiology major participated in undergraduate research and served as a summer fellow for Gundersen Lutheran Health System. She developed a bacterial DNA laboratory assay for a suspected species carried in ticks. Patients with a known tick-bite experiencing a fever of an unknown origin that were negative for known tick-borne illnesses (lyme) were tested, Marti explains. “UW-L provided me with hands on laboratory experience,” she says. “I was comfortable in the lab and had already established good technique coming out of college.” Marti’s job involves developing and validating molecular clinical tests, as well as project management for research studies. “All of my classes [at UWL] provided me with a good framework to start my career,” she says. “I especially appreciated the writing emphasis that the Microbiology Department pushed because, as a development technologist, I write procedures that are used every day. I also write abstracts, posters and presentations that have been seen at national and international conferences.” For her future career goals, Marti wants to use science to improve healthcare. She aims to develop and work on at-home collection devices for molecular testing. “There are currently very few at-home collection devices available in general,” Marti says. “A few companies offer kits that you can order that you provide saliva into, then ship the kit back to the company and they will test the DNA to look for ancestry and other genetic markers.” Marti has worked on validating an at-home collection for swabs testing chlamydia in the past. The process is simple for the patient: the swab would be shipped to the patient, and they provide their sample. It just has to be shipped back to the laboratory. “Making healthcare more accessible to everyone is important to me, especially being from and living in a rural setting,” she says. “It can be a real burden to go into the doctor when you are sick. But if you can have a collection device sent to your home and shipped to the lab, we can provide better quality and affordable care to everyone, along with keeping people at home where they are comfortable while also preventing the spread of illness.” Marti encourages UW-L students to stay curious. “It may seem that all the exciting experiments or discoveries have already been found, but they haven’t. There are so many things that need to be changed, discovered and researched,” she says. Check out the 40 Under Forty blog. View Marti's video