Kristen (Krissy) M. Kallestad

Year entered: 2003 (Medical School), 2006 (MD/PhD Program)

Degrees Received:
B.A. Biology, The College of St. Catherine, 1999

Honors/Awards:
Dean’s List, College of St. Catherine, 1997-1999
Fight For Sight Student Fellowship Award, 2004
Minnesota Medical Foundation, Student Research Award, 2004
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Research Training Fellowship for Medical Students, 2005
NIH predoctoral fellowship: Translational Research in Neurobiology of Disease 2006-2007
Gregory Marzolf Muscular Dystrophy Training Fellowship 2006-2007; 2007-2008

Thesis Advisor: Linda McLoon, Ph.D., Neuroscience Graduate Program

Thesis Research:

I am generally interested in cellular-based therapies for disease. I am currently studying the cells responsible for repairing and regenerating injured muscle as a potential therapy for treating Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a devastating genetic disease affecting about 1 in 3500 male births. Current understanding of the disease includes knowledge that certain muscles are affected more severely than others and the muscles controlling eye movements, extraocular muscles (EOM), are completely spared. I am investigating the mechanism of the sparing and hope to use cells from EOM to treat injured muscles throughout the body.

Publications:

Kallestad KM, McLoon LK. Myogenic precursor cells in extraocular muscle. In: Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Eds. W Low and C. Verfaillie, World Publishing, Chapter 8, pp 177-190, 2008.

McLoon LK, Thorstenson KM, Solomon A, Lewis MP. Myogenic precursor cells in craniofacial muscles. Oral Sci.2007;13:134-140.

Abstracts:

Thorstenson KM, McLoon LK. Extraocular muscle myogenic precursor cells appear to be more resistant to cell death than cells of limb muscles. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. ARVO Abst. 47:5399, 2006.

McLoon LK, Thorstenson KM, Asakura A. Extraocular muscles contain more satellite cells and multipotent precursor cells than limb muscle. Ivest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. ARVO Abst. 47:5399, 2006.

McLoon LK, Thorstenson K, Asakura A. Extraocular muscles contain more satellite cells and more multipotent precursor cells than limb muscle. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. ARVO Abstr. 46:4679, 2005.

Publications Prior to Entering MD/PhD Program:

Thorstenson KM, Khoruts A. Generation of anergic and potentially immunoregulatory CD25+CD4 T cells in vivo after induction of peripheral tolerance with intravenous or oral antigen. J Immunol. 2001;167:188-195.

Moses CT, Thorstenson KM, Jameson SC, Khoruts A. Competition of self ligands restrains homeostatic proliferation of native CD4 T cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 2003;100:1185-1190.

Thorstenson KM, Herzovi L, Khoruts A. A model of suppression of the antigen-specific CD4 T cell response by regulatory CD25+CD4 T cells in vivo. Int Immunol. 2005;17:335-42.