Maria Maratta Plummer is a board certified pathologist who teaches extensively at the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is also involved in teaching Physician Assistants in the School of Health Professions. She has been at the NYITCOM full time since 2008, and teaches both the patient-based learning and lecture-based curricula. She was associate course director for the Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine until 2023, and has received several annual teaching awards. She completed a Health Policy Fellowship in 2014 from the Ohio Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and sponsored by NYITCOM, and also became a Harvard Macy Institute Scholar in Medical Education in 2015.
Plummer has participated in various research projects involving cadavers, which include: prevalence of serrated adenomas, seborrheic keratosis, chronic diverticulosis, histological changes in sun-exposed skin, and histological changes in chronic renal disease. She has also been involved in medical education research on mindfulness as a determinant for medical students in choosing a specialty in primary care. She has been editing sections of the text book, 5-Minute Clinical Consult. She is a member of the Oversight Admissions Committee at NYITCOM, and also served on the biosafety and grievance committees. She is faculty advisor to the American Medical Students Association and Students Organization for Hematology and Oncology. She is also a member of the AMA, College of American Pathologists, and American Society of Clinical Pathologists. She also was an advisor for the Gold Humanism Honor Society until 2021.
Prior to working at NYITCOM, Plummer was an attending pathologist at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, NY and a staff pathologist at a national private laboratory. She graduated with an M.D. from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (Rutgers) in 1990. She received her bachelor’s degree in Biology in 1986 from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Plummer was appointed to the Board for Medicine of New York State in September 2016.
Publications
- Pavia CS, Plummer MM, COVID-19 vaccines for high risk and immunocompromised patients, (Ch. 9) Editor(s): Charles S. Pavia, Volker Gurtler, Methods in Microbiology, Academic Press,Volume 50, 2022, Pages 269-279, ISSN 0580-9517, ISBN 9780323850612, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.mim.2021.11.001. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0580951721000374)
- Plummer, MM, Pavia CS. 2020. Combining antigen detection and serology for the diagnosis of selected infectious diseases. In, MIM 47 Immunological Methods in Microbiology, V. Gurtler & C.S. Pavia (eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands. [ May 2020] https://www.elsevier.com/books/immunological-methods-in-microbiology/gurtler/978-0-12-820811-3
- Padalkar MV, Tsivitis AH, Gelfman Y, Kasiyanyk M, Kaungumpillil N, Ma D, Gao M, Borges KA, Dhaliwal P, Nasruddin S, Saji S, Gilani H, Schram EJ, Singh M, Plummer MM, Savinova OV. Paradoxical reduction of plasma lipids and atherosclerosis in mice with adenine-induced chronic kidney disease and hypercholesterolemia. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023 Feb 9;10:1088015. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2023.1088015. PMID: 36844738; PMCID: PMC9947538.
- Plummer MM, Pavia CS. COVID-19 Vaccines for HIV-Infected Patients. Viruses. 2021; 13(10):1890. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13101890
- Chung, MJ and Plummer, MM. New Paradigm on Neurodegeneration and Possibly Autoimmunity from ALS/FTD and Its Genetic Hallmarks. SM Jnl of Neurology and Neuroscience. Aug 2021, 7:7 ISSN: 2573-6728 https://www.jsmcentral.org/sm-neurology/smjnn882385.pdf
- Pavia C, M Plummer M. The evolution of rapid antigen detection systems and their application for COVID-19 and other serious respiratory infectious diseases. J Microbiol Immunol Infect. 2021 Jun 26:S1684-1182(21)00134-1. doi: 10.1016/j.jmii.2021.06.003. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34272205; PMCID: PMC8234251.
- MacKenzie Jr. D, Watters AK, To JT, Young MW, Muratori J, Wilkoff MH, Abraham RG, Plummer MM, Zhang D. ALT Positivity in Human Cancers: Prevalence and Clinical Insights. Cancers. 2021; 13(10):2384. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers13102384
- Pavia, CS, Plummer, MMP, Clinical Implications of Nicotine as an Antimicrobial Agent and Immune Modulator. Biomed Pharmacother. 2020 Sep; 129: 110404. Published online 2020 Jun 27. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2020.110404
- Pavia, CS, Plummer, MMP, Transfusion-Associated Lyme Disease – Although Unlikely, It Is Still a Concern Worth Considering. Front. Microbiol. 04 September 2018 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb2018.02070
- Nayyar N, Saggio G, Plummer M, Jung MK, Kappenberg J. Association of mindfulness with residency preference and curriculum selection in preclinical osteopathic medical students. J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2018;118(9):587-595. doi:10.7556/jaoa.2018.142.
- Plummer M, Vasilyev A, Shaheen S, Geisler J, Jung M, Pathology Findings in Medical School Anatomy Cadavers, MedEdPublish, 2018, 7, [1], 7, doi:https://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2018.000007.1
- Filippo Romanelli, AnthonyMarco Corbo, Maryam Salehi, Manisha C. Yadav, Soha Salman,David Petrosian, Omid J. Rashidbaigi, Jesse Chait, Jes Kuruvilla, Maria Plummer,I lian Radichev,Kenneth B. Margulies,A. Martin Gerdes,Anthony B. Pinkerton,José Luis Millán,Alexei Y. Savinov,Olga V. Overexpression of tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) in endothelial cells accelerates coronary artery disease in a mouse model of familial hypercholesterolemia, PLoS One. 2017 Oct 12;12(10):e0186426. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186426. Published: October 12, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186426
- Abstract published in Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2017; 37:A426 entitled “Overexpression of Tissue-nonspecific Alkaline Phosphatase (TNAP) Accelerates Coronary Artery Disease in the Setting of Hypercholesterolemai in Mice”.
- Plummer MM (2017) Formalin - The Pathologist Preservative. Int J Occup Environ Hyg: IJOEH-101. DOI: 10.20911/IJOEH-101/100001 2017
- Lal, K., Plummer, M., Milko, M., Belyayeva, M., Jung, M., Elston, D., “Chronic Inflammation and Vascular Density in Sun-Exposed Skin” Journal of the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology, March 2017, Volume 37, pgs. 25 -28
- Pavia, CS and Plummer, MP, “Was it authentic Lyme disease or some other disorder?” Pathogens and Disease, vol. 75, no.3, March 2017
Honors and Awards
- Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching Basic Sciences – 2023
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine Old Westbury, NY - Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching Basic Sciences – 2022
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine Old Westbury, NY - Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching Basic Sciences – 2021
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine Old Westbury, NY - Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching Basic Sciences – 2020
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine Old Westbury, NY - Teaching Excellence Award - 2019
New York Institute of Technology Physician Assistant Studies, School of Health Professions - Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching Basic Science – 2019
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine Old Westbury, NY - Faculty Award for Excellence in Problem Based Learning – 2017
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine Old Westbury, NY - Standard of Excellence Award -2016
- Excellence in Teaching Basic Science - 2016
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine - Faculty Award for Excellence In Teaching Basic Sciences - 2015
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine - Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching Basic Science and Problem Based Learning – 2014
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine - Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence In Teaching Basic Sciences - 2013
New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine - Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching Clinical Sciences – 2011
New York College of Osteopathic Medicine
Courses Taught at New York Tech
- NYITCOM: Pathology in LDB Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine
- NYITCOM: Histology in LDB Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine (Hematology/Immunology)
- NYITCOM: Pathology in LDB Principles and Practices of Osteopathic Medicine 1 (formerly known as Nervous System, Musculoskeletal System, Hematology/Immunology System, and Integumentary System)
- NYITCOM: Pathology in LDB Principles and Practices of Osteopathic Medicine 2 (formerly known as Cardiovascular system, Respiratory System, and Genitourinary System)
- NYITCOM: Pathology in LDB Principles and Practices of Osteopathic Medicine 3 (formerly known as Gastriointestinal system, Endocrine system, and Reproductive System)
- NYITCOM: DPC (Problem based learning) – 2nd year course
- NYITCOM: CBL (Case Based Learning)
- NYITCOM: Peer Instruction
- School of Health Professions: Physicians Assistants Program: Advanced Clinical Pathophysiology