Amber (Delmas) Eliason grew up locally here in Stuart, FL on a 10-acre horse farm. After graduating from both Martin County High School and Indian River Community College simultaneously in 2003 with an Associate in Science, in 2006 she received her bachelor’s degree in Microbiology & Cell Science from the University of Florida. During her senior year of her bachelor’s and after, she worked for Dr. Keith Robertson looking at aberrant epigenetic regulation and the role of DNMT3B in modulating gene expression and chromatin structure in both ICF syndrome cases and colon cancer while teach open water SCUBA diving for the University of Florida. In 2008, she joined the UF Department of Medicine and through the lab of Dr. Michael Kladde earned her master’s degree in 2010 using MAPit and pyrosequencing to look at WIF1 aberrant hypermethylation in cervical carcinomas.

Amber comes to us from UF Scripps Institute’s Department of Immunology where she worked for Dr. Mark Sundrud for the past seven years to identify and understand the regulation of pro-inflammatory T cell subsets that are involved in the development and persistence of chronic inflammatory disorders. In 2021 they were able to publish their work on how CAR directs T cell adaptation to bile acids in the small intestine in Nature.

Aside from a long list of proficient molecular biology techniques working with bacteria, yeast, mouse and human samples, Amber is a certified BD FACS Aria and a CYTEK Aurora operator proficient in flow cytometry and cell sorting. She has extensive background in mouse colony maintenance, breeding and survival surgery. Her extraordinary organizational skills in both physical tasks and time management has led her to the lab management where she has mentored everyone from MDs to high school students along the way. She will be managing the Marciano lab in their efforts to understand the role that extracellular vesicles play in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Her time not spent in the lab, Amber is a mother of two, still an avid recreational SCUBA diver and lobster hunter, when season permits. Fun fact is that she is a retired roller derby player formerly with the Gainesville Roller Rebels and a Stuart local shark attack survivor.