Jennifer Sullivan, PhD
Interim Provost and Dean of The Graduate School | Augusta University
Augusta, GA, UNITED STATES
Jennifer Sullivan, PhD, is an internationally recognized expert of sex differences in cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology.
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Biography
Jennifer Sullivan, PhD, has been a part of the AU community since 2000 when she joined the Vascular Biology Center in the Medical College of Georgia as a postdoctoral fellow.
She joined the faculty in 2008 and is currently a Regents Professor in the Department of Physiology, the Dean of the Graduate School, and the Interim EVP of Academic Affairs and Provost. Dr. Sullivan is an internationally recognized expert and leader in the field of sex differences in cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology.
Dr. Sullivan's work has been continuously funded by the NIH and the American Heart Association since becoming a tenure track faculty member in 2008. She consistently publishes her work in the top journals in the field of hypertension, with over 120 peer reviewed articles and has received numerous prestigious awards for her outstanding work.
Dr. Sullivan has active leadership roles in national scientific societies, serves on the editorial board as associate editor for leading peer reviewed journals, and currently is chair of an NIH grant study section. She is also an exceptional educator and mentor, with a demonstrated commitment to the training of undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, as well as postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty members. She creates a challenging and collaborative training environment for all of her trainees while focusing on the needs of each individual.
Areas of Expertise (4)
Hypertension
Cardiovascular Physiology
Pathophysiology
Higher Education Administration
Accomplishments (5)
Harriet Dustan Award, American Heart Association Council on Hypertension (professional)
2024
Medical College of Georgia Outstanding Faculty Award (professional)
2024
Medical College of Georgia Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) Leadership Award (professional)
2023
Outstanding Faculty Award in Support of First-Year PhD Students, The Graduate School, AU (professional)
2023
Ernest Starling Lectureship Award, APS WEH Section (professional)
2023
Education (3)
Albany Medical College: Ph.D., Cardiovascular Technology/Technologist 2000
Albany Medical College: M.S., Cardiovascular Technology/Technologist 1999
SUNY Geneseo: B.S., Biology, General 1996
Affiliations (2)
- American Heart Association
- American Physiological Society
Links (4)
Media Appearances (4)
NIH training grant enhances opportunities for biomedical graduate students at AU
EurekAlert! online
2021-04-12
The training grant enhances the caliber of the educational experience The Graduate School at AU provides students as it provides more dollars to pay an annual stipend to the students who are a critical biomedical workforce at a research university, says Dr. Jennifer Sullivan, interim dean of The Graduate School.
New rodent model helps identify pregnant women whose prior kidney injury also affects babies
Medcal Life Sciences News online
2021-02-22
We are talking about a population of young women that we usually think about as protected and healthy, and they are not if they have had a kidney insult. We think there is injury, potentially even years later, in some of these young women that we are not seeing, and we need to be able to quantify how much injury is still there."
Females use anti-inflammatory T cells to keep their blood pressure down
Medical Xpress online
2020-06-23
Females have an innate ability to upregulate these anti-inflammatory cells, called Tregs, in response to a challenge, says Dr. Jennifer C. Sullivan, pharmacologist and physiologist, noting that the cell's levels are known to increase to help maintain a healthy pregnancy, for example, so the immune system does not attack the fetus, which has DNA from both parents.
High-fat diets appear bad for blood pressure in younger males and females
ScienceDaily online
2019-01-08
"You have a lot of people consuming high-fat diets and we don't know enough about what effect it's having on females," says Dr. Jennifer C. Sullivan, pharmacologist and physiologist in the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
Articles (3)
Adverse Maternal and Fetal Outcomes in a Novel Experimental Model of Pregnancy after Recovery from Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology2021 Background: Recent clinical studies report that women with a history of AKI have an increased incidence of maternal and fetal adverse outcomes during pregnancy, despite fully recovering renal function prior to conception. The mechanisms contributing to such adverse outcomes in pregnancy after AKI are not yet understood. Methods: To develop a rodent model to investigate fetal and maternal outcomes in female animals with a history of AKI, we used ischemia-reperfusion injury as an experimental model of AKI in female Sprague Dawley rats. The 12-week-old animals underwent warm bilateral ischemia-reperfusion surgery involving clamping of both renal arteries for 45 minutes or sham surgery (control). Rats were allowed to recover for 1 month prior to mating. Recovery from ischemia-reperfusion injury was confirmed by measurements of plasma creatinine and urinary protein excretion. We assessed maternal and fetal outcomes during late pregnancy on gestational day 20.
Greater T Regulatory Cells in Females Attenuate DOCA-Salt-Induced Increases in Blood Pressure Versus Males
Hypertension2020 Hypertension is the most common risk factor for cardiovascular disease, causing over 18 million deaths a year. Although the mechanisms controlling blood pressure (BP) in either sex remain largely unknown, T cells play a critical role in the development of hypertension. Further evidence supports a role for the immune system in contributing to sex differences in hypertension. The goal of the current study was to first, determine the impact of sex on the renal T-cell profiles in DOCA-salt hypertensive males and females and second, test the hypothesis that greater numbers of T regulatory cells (Tregs) in females protect against DOCA-salt-induced increases in BP and kidney injury. Male rats displayed greater increases in BP than females following 3 weeks of DOCA-salt treatment, although increases in renal injury were comparable between the sexes. DOCA-salt treatment resulted in an increase in proinflammatory T cells in both sexes; however, females had more anti-inflammatory Tregs than males. Additional male and female DOCA-salt rats were treated with anti-CD25 to decrease Tregs.
Necrosis Contributes to the Development of Hypertension in Male, but Not Female, Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats
Hypertension2019 Necrosis is a pathological form of cell death that induces an inflammatory response, and immune cell activation contributes to the development and maintenance of hypertension. Necrosis was measured in kidney, spleen, and aorta of 12- to 13-week-old male and female SHRs (spontaneously hypertensive rats); male SHRs had greater renal necrotic cell death than female SHRs. Because male SHRs have a higher blood pressure (BP) and a more proinflammatory T-cell profile than female SHRs, the current studies tested the hypothesis that greater necrotic cell death in male SHRs exacerbates increases in BP and contributes to the proinflammatory T-cell profile. Male and female SHRs were randomized to receive vehicle or Necrox-5-a cell permeable inhibitor of necrosis-from 6 to 12 weeks of age or from 11 to 13 weeks of age. In both studies, Necrox-5 decreased renal necrosis and abolished the sex difference. Treatment with Necrox-5 beginning at 6 weeks of age attenuated maturation-induced increases in BP in male SHR; BP in female SHR was not altered by Necrox-5 treatment. Necrox-5 decreased proinflammatory renal T cells in both sexes, although sex differences were maintained.
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