Current Physiology Postdoctoral Fellows

photo of Dr. Perenkita Mendiola

Dr. Perenkita Mendiola

  • Mentor: Dr. Jessica Filosa
My overall research interest is to better understand mechanisms which control vascular function and how perturbations in these mechanisms lead to disease. Current work aims to address the impact of cardiovascular diseases (e.g. hypertension) on the functional integrity of the neurovascular unit.
photo of Dr. Denisha R. Spires

Dr. Denisha R. Spires

  • Mentor: Dr. Daria Ilatovskaya
Dr. Denisha R. Spires was born and raised in Jackson, MS where she attended Tougaloo College, a noteworthy HBCU. While earning her bachelor’s degree in biology, she focused on the pathophysiology of type 1 and type 2 diabetic nephropathy in relation to endothelin 1. She received her PhD in Physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (November 2020) where her thesis was centered on examining the sex-based differences in the progression and severity in type 2 diabetic kidney disease. Currently as a postdoctoral fellow she is continuing her studies of the pathophysiological role of ion channels in the kidney and on the progression of renal disease in relation to mitochondrial dysfunction with Dr. Daria Ilatovskaya, MS, PhD, FAHA.

PPF in the News

Plant-based diet protects from hypertension, preeclampsia

June 14, 2021JagWire

A plant-based diet appears to afford significant protection to rats bred to become hypertensive on a high-salt diet, scientists report. When the rats become pregnant, the whole grain diet also protects the mothers and their offspring from deadly preeclampsia. Although we have all heard to avoid the salt shaker, an estimated 30-50% of us have a significant increase in blood pressure in response to high-salt intake, percentages that are even higher and more impactful in Blacks.

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New rodent model helps identify pregnant women whose prior kidney injury also affects babies

Feb 22 2021News Medical Life Sciences

Young pregnant women, who appear to have fully recovered from an acute injury that reduced their kidney function, have higher rates of significant problems like preeclampsia and low birthweight babies, problems which indicate their kidneys have not actually fully recovered. Now scientists have developed a rodent model that is enabling studies to better understand, identify and ideally avoid this recently identified association, they report in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

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