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.