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.

Awards and Honors

2024 Medical College of Georgia Faculty Senate Outstanding Young Basic Science Faculty Award

2024 Early Career Investigator Award from the Society for Reproductive Investigation at Annual Meeting 2024, Vancouver, Canada

2024 Longo/Power New Investigator Award from the Center for Perinatal Biology, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA

2023 Augusta University Research Institute Emerging Scientist Award

2023 Young Investigator Award for the International Conferences on Endothelin-1 World Congress, Rome, Italy

2023 Selected for Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia “Women who Inspires”

2023 American Heart Association Council on Hypertension. Harry Goldblatt Award for Early Career Investigators. Award lecture given at AHA Council on Hypertension Scientific Sessions Sept 8, 2023 in Boston, MA

2023 Fellowship of the American Heart Association

2021 American Heart Association Council on Hypertension Scientific Sessions Research Recognition Award

2021 American Physiological Society: Water and Electrolyte Homeostasis Section Juan Carlos Romero Award

2020 STAR reviewer 2019: AJP Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative

2020 - American Heart Association Council on Hypertension Scientific Sessions: Top Trainee Advocacy Award

2020 - American Physiological Society and Data Sciences International: Dean Franklin Young Investigator Award

2020 - American Physiological Society: Water and Electrolyte Homeostasis Section Juan Carlos Romero Postdoctoral Award Finalist (*Declined to accept Dean Franklin Award)

2020 - Augusta University Research Day 2020: Postdoctoral Finalist

Recent Publications

Moronge D, Ayulo V, Elgazzaz M, Mellott E, Ogbi S, Faulkner JL. “Both endothelial mineralocorticoid receptor expression and hyperleptinemia are required for clinical characteristics of placental ischemia in mice”. AJP Heart and Circulatory Physiology. 2024 May 17. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00188.2024.

Moronge D, Sullivan JC, Faulkner JL . “Physiology of Pregnancy-Related Acute Kidney Injury”. Comprehensive Physiology. 2023 Jun 26;13(3):4869-4878.

Mellott E, Faulkner JL . “Mechanisms of Leptin-induced Endothelial Dysfunction”. Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension. Vol. 32, No. 2, March 2023.

Jessica Faulkner, PhD