Rate My Professor Valeria Mas

Valeria R. Mas, MS, PhD, is the Joseph and Corinne Schwartz Professor of Surgical Sciences Research in Transplantation, Professor of Surgery, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore. She heads the Division of Surgical Sciences in the Department of Surgery. As a cellular and molecular transplant immunologist, her research focuses on improving organ donor utilization by better understanding donor organ biology and response to injury, and increasing the longevity of organ grafts by evaluating cells, cell states, and associated pathways that characterize impaired repair to identify new targets for interventions. Her expertise includes transplant immunology and molecular biology, with emphasis on epigenetic modifications and gene expression regulation affecting kidney graft outcomes.

Dr. Mas earned a BS in biology from the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, master's degrees in immunology and clinical biochemistry, and a PhD in biochemistry from the National University of San Luis, Argentina. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University and joined its faculty as an Assistant Professor. She later served as tenured Associate Professor of Research Surgery at the University of Virginia, directing the Molecular Transplant Research Laboratory and Translational Genomics Transplant Laboratory. Prior to her 2020 recruitment to the University of Maryland, she founded and directed the Transplant Research Institute at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center as Endowed Professor of Transplant Research and Professor of Surgery. Dr. Mas has received the International Liver Transplantation Rising Star Award, University of Virginia School of Medicine Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, and American Society of Transplantation Basic Science Investigator Award. A Fellow of the American Society of Transplantation, she has led committees for the International Liver Transplant Society, served as associate editor for Transplantation, Renal Pharmacology, and the American Journal of Transplantation, and published more than 175 papers and abstracts with NIH, foundation, and industry funding.