Ms. DaRue A. Prieto is the new Blast Injury Research Program Coordinator, Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), and Primary Hand Receipt Holder (PHRH) at the DOD Blast Injury Research Coordinating Office (BIRCO), located at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), Fort Detrick, Maryland. In this capacity, Ms. Prieto supports the DOD Executive Agent by coordinating blast injury research initiatives inside and outside of the DOD, nationally and internationally, to support the delivery of timely and effective blast injury prevention, mitigation, and treatment solutions for Servicemembers.
Over the course of a two-decade career as a researcher at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at Frederick, Frederick, MD, Ms. Prieto performed large-scale mass spectrometry-based clinical biomarker studies. She additionally designed, developed, and optimized a telomere length assay to measure and compare telomere shortening in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and HIV/AIDS patients, and supervised a polynucleotide vaccine (PNV) development project. Ms. Prieto has co-authored 42 peer-reviewed publications, 10 as first author. She has given numerous presentations and presented posters at major conferences.
At the NCI, Ms. Prieto received two Annual Research Festival Poster Presentation Awards, a Science Achievement Award, and an Outstanding Contributor of the Quarter Award. She served as an invited instructor at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), providing her expertise in up-steam processing methods for Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS).
As a Research Scientist at Battelle National Biodefense Institute (BNBI), National Biodefense and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), Ms. Prieto supported bioforensic casework for top governmental agencies by leveraging her expertise to identify and characterize protein toxins using liquid chromatography high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC- HRMS MS-MS) and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF/TOF) mass spectrometry.
In 2022, Ms. Prieto joined the Joint Trauma Analysis and Prevention of Injury in Combat (JTAPIC) office in Frederick, MD as a Medical Business Systems Analyst. At JTAPIC, she tracked and documented Warfighter injuries and incidents involving the U.S., its allies, and partners, coordinating the development of processes for integrating medical data with operational, intelligence and materiel. She transitioned to federal service in January 2024.
Ms. Prieto holds a Master of Science in the Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware and a bachelor's degree in biology from Delaware State University. She attended the University of Delaware on a fellowship granted by the Office of Naval Research (ONR).
Ms. Prieto was inducted into Beta, Beta, Beta Biological Honor Society, Alpha Chi National Honor Society and Phi Alpha Theta International Honor Society during her undergraduate years. Ms. Prieto additionally received the Valerie N. Bush Award for Scholarship, Research, and Enthusiasm in Biology and a scholarship for Black Americans.
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