Stefanie Haasken

E-mail: breit060@umn.edu

Year entered: 2007

Thesis Advisor: Bryce Binstadt

Degrees received:
B.A., Spanish Education, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, 2004
B.S., Biology, Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN, 2006

Honors and Awards:

• American College of Rheumatology REF/Abbott Health Professional Graduate Student Research Preceptorship 2009

Thesis research:

My research is focused on the mechanisms by which tissue-specific pathology occurs amid systemic autoimmunity, with a long-term goal of identifying potential therapeutic targets. An important example of this is the cardiovascular pathology seen in patients with diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), and rheumatic carditis. Our laboratory utilizes the K/BxN T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic mouse model of spontaneous inflammatory arthritis, which affords a unique opportunity to study cardiac pathology in the context of systemic autoimmunity, as we have recently discovered that this mouse develops cardiac valve inflammation in addition to its well-characterized arthritis. Specifically, my projects seek to understand the role of innate immune cell adhesion receptors in the pathogenesis of endocarditis in the K/BxN model. .