Dr. Wendy M. Mars currently serves as the Assistant Dean of the Learning Environment in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Her academic appointment is as an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, Division of Experimental Pathology, at the University of Pittsburgh.  She has a secondary appointment with the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute and is affiliated with the Heart and Lung Vascular Institute.  She is also the Director of the Cellular & Molecular Pathology (CMP) Graduate Program in the Department of Pathology.

Dr. Mars received her BS in Medical Technology from Arizona State University.  She then earned her PhD in the Molecular Genetics of Cancer from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Science, focusing on Chronic Myelocytic Leukemia. Subsequently she did post-graduate work at what is now the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, before she came to Pittsburgh.

Dr. Mars’ research areas include the role of tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) in abrogating hepatic fibrosis the role of t-PA in hepatocyte/biliary cell transdifferentiation; the yin/yang roles of Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) and IL-6 in fatty liver disease; and studies on the interactions between the urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA), HGF, and their respective receptors LRP1 and MET in normal and disease states of the liver.

Dr. Mars is an Editor for Scientific Reports (a Nature Journal) and an Editor for the World Journal of Gastroenterology, and as well as an ad hoc reviewer for Hepatology, Blood, Cancer Research, Cell Transplantation, Fibrinolysis, Proteolysis, Journal of Theoretical Biology and Molecular Carcinogenesis, Wound Repair, and Regeneration.  She also holds 2 patents.

Dr. Mars is a certified Medical Technologist by the American Society of Clinical Pathology. She is a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.  She received the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Distinguished Mentor Award in 2010-2011.

View a list of Dr. Mars’ publications here.