My name is Leslie Ann Caromile. I am of Eastern Cherokee and Italian ancestry. I received my BS at the University of Connecticut in the field of neuroscience and my MS at California State University, Los Angeles in molecular biology. I am currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington.
Both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes are independent risk factors for coronary heart disease. The rate of type 2 diabetes in Native Americans and Alaska Natives is more than twice that for the total US population. Heart disease is the leading cause of death among Native Americans. My current research focuses on Phogrin (NE-6, IA-2b), a 64KD protein that is present on insulin-containing secretory granules in pancreatic beta cells. Although auto-antibodies against Phogrin are common in pre-diabetics and are used clinically to diagnose a pre-diabetic state, the nature of its biological role has remained mysterious. My thesis project is to determine the biological role of Phogrin and test the hypothesis that Phogrin plays a role in regulating insulin release. Additionally, I will investigate our labs preliminary observation that modest elevation of circulating insulin levels, within the range found in type 2 diabetic patients, upregulates expression of Phogrin in vascular smooth muscle cells in injured vessels. I will test the hypothesis that elevated insulin levels specifically affect smooth muscle cells in injured vessels and that this might play a role in arterial disease in type 2 diabetic patients. Potential results in this area of research could help to identify steps at which the secretory pathway for insulin release may be mis-regulated in diabetes and/or manipulated therapeutically.
Please see my attached CV for additional information.
