Jessica N. Cooke

Second Year Student, 2009 - 2010

Email address: jecooke@wfubmc.edu

Education:

B.S. Biology, 2008 – Winthrop University

Advisor: Donald W. Bowden, Ph.D. (Biochemistry) The Wake Forest University School of Medicine Center for Diabetes Research

Research:

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 180 million people worldwide have diabetes; this number is likely to more than double by 2030. Diabetes is a group of diseases marked by high levels of blood glucose, resulting from defects in insulin production and/or insulin action. Diabetes can lead to serious health complications and premature death. Type 2 diabetes is associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, impaired glucose metabolism, physical inactivity, and race/ethnicity. Complications resulting from diabetes can include: heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, nervous system disease, amputation. One of the complications of diabetes is diabetic nephropathy – damage to the kidneys as a result of diabetes. Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure, accounting for nearly 44% of new cases, and 10-20% of diabetic patients die of kidney failure. End stage renal disease (ESRD) and diabetes are complex diseases that are influenced by several factors, including environment, lifestyle, and genetics. The focus of my research is to utilize genetic analysis techniques to evaluate the influence of polymorphisms in specific genes on individuals with diabetic nephropathy.

Publications:

Cooke JN, Westover KM. Serotype-specific differences in antigenic regions of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV): A comprehensive statistical analysis. Infect Genet Evol. 2008 Dec;8(6):855-63. Epub 2008 Aug 23.