Oversea fellowship and students

2013/09 Sandi Lin from Monash University, Australia.

Deniz Yeter – Johnson County Community College

Deniz Yeter is a university student from the United States who is a recurrent patient with Kawasaki disease (KD), developing the illness at 18 months and then again at 36 months of age. Over the last several years, Deniz has published several articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, including in leading biomedical journals such as Autoimmunity Reviews (impact factor = 7). In particular, Deniz's research focuses primarily upon cell-to-cell and intracellular signaling, such as the Ca²⁺/NFAT pathway that is now greatly emphasized in KD research after confirmation of ITPKC and CASP3 genetic susceptibility through recent meta-analyses. This pathway is primarily involved in the execution of targeted genetic expression and transcription into corresponding proteins to carry out function. The expression of various genes is found to significantly alter before and after KD patients receive treatment, while the genetic expression of susceptibility loci for KD significantly varies both within and between generalized and more specific ethnic groups. Other areas of interest include epigenetic regulation of genetic expression in KD, along with its relation to biochemical detoxification, redox status, or methylation reactions. The high-order of variability likely explains why only a sensitive subset of young children develop KD, along with why only some of these children are resistant to treatment or go on to develop the hallmark coronary artery lesions of the disease.