Jessica Faulkner, PhD

Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology

Phone:  (706) 721-4110
 Fax:  (706) 721-7299
 Email: jefaulkner@augusta.edu
 Office: CA-3135
Lab: CA-3132E

     

Education and Training

Augusta State University, Biology, BS, 2008
University of Mississippi Medical Center, Medical Pharmacology, PhD, 2015
Augusta University, Post-doctoral Fellowship, PhD, 2016-2021

Academic Appointments

2024- Program Leadership in the Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship Program at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University

2021- Graduate Faculty in The Graduate School of Augusta University, Augusta GA

2021 - Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University

2021-  Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

2017-2021 - Postdoctoral Fellow, Vascular Biology Center, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta Univeristy 

 

Research Interests

Studies in the Faulkner laboratory explore the mechanisms of high blood pressure, vascular damage and fetal growth restriction in obese and lean pregnancy. In particular, the laboratory focuses on the physiological alterations to the vasculature caused by abnormal hormone release and activity in the vasculature, placenta, adrenal gland and adipose tissue utilizing human tissues/cell lines and rodent models of preeclampsia. The laboratory is primarily exploring mechanisms of metabolic dysfunction, vascular endothelial cell biology and function, uterine artery blood flow, steroid hormone synthesis, placental hypoxia and inflammation. Studies are approached with a translational perspective, utilizing transgenic and surgical mouse models of preeclampsia as well as human tissues/cell lines to determine pathways involved in hypertension, vascular damage and fetal growth restriction in the context of pregnancy. These results lead to mechanistic exploration of the underlying biochemical, molecular and genetic factors involved. Experiments to test our hypotheses include functional measures of blood pressure and vascular function, protein and mRNA expression measures as well as hormone, cell signaling and genetic analyses, among others.