Dahmer, Mary Ph.D
Associate Professor
Specialization: Pediatric Critical Care
Tel: (414) 955-2374 Dr. Dahmer's CV
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Research Interests:
Our laboratory focuses on determining whether variations in DNA may explain the observed variability in the severity of disease, in the response to treatment, or in the development of complications observed in certain pediatric diseases. Our work involves genotyping single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in study participants. SNPs genotyped include both linkage disequilibrium tag SNPs and nonsynonymous SNPs found in coding regions. In addition, SNPs are used to generate haplotypes which are used for analyses. We are also interested in whether SNPs which associate with severity of disease or response to treatment also result in differences in level or function of the encoded protein. Identification of DNA polymorphisms or haplotypes associated with severity of disease may allow their use as markers, enabling the physician to better predict which children are more likely to develop more severe illness and/or which treatment is likely to result in the best response for a given individual. Current projects include investigating the influence of genetic variation in specific candidate genes involved in the regulation of lung function or innate immunity on the risk of severe lung injury in children with pneumonia, and characterizing mutations in the ABCA3 gene associated with lung disease.
Representative Publications:
Quasney MW, Waterer, GW, Dahmer MK, Kron GK, Zhang Q, Kessler LA, and Wunderink RG. Association between surfactant protein B polymorphism and the risk of respiratory failure in adults with community acquired pneumonia. Critical Care Medicine, 32, 1115-1119, 2004.
Dahmer MK. Caspase-2, -3 and -7 are involved in thapsigargin induced apoptosis of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. J. Neurosci. Res., 80, 576-583, 2005.
Dahmer MK, Randolph A, Vitali S., and Quasney MW. Genetic polymorphisms and sepsis. Pediatric Crit. Care Med., 6, S61-S73, 2005.
Elbahlawan L, Binaei S, Christensen ML, Zhang Q., Quasney MW, and Dahmer MK. b2-Adrenergic receptor polymorphisms in African American children with status asthmaticus. Pediatric Crit. Care Med., 7:8-15, 2006.
Dahmer MK and Quasney MW. Gene Polymorphisms in Critical Care and Illness. In Pediatric Critical Care Medicine: Basic Science and Clinical Evidence, (D. Wheeler, T. Shanley and H. Wong, eds.) Springer, 2007.
Dahmer MK and Quasney MW. Genomic Medicine. In Rogers Textbook of Pediatric Intensive Care, 4th ed., Eds. David Nichols, Hector Wong, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008.
Patwari, P.P., O’Cain, P., Goodman, D.M., Smith, M., Krushkal, J., Liu, C., Somes, G., Quasney, M.W., Dahmer, M.K. Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist intron 2 VNTR polymorphism and respiratory failure in children with community acquired pneumonia. Pediatr. Crit. Care Med., in press.
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