Alison Paquette

Research Scientist, Institute of Systems Biology, Seattle, Washington

I am currently a Research Scientist at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in Seattle WA, where I use data driven approaches to better understand the causes and underlying pathology of pregnancy related complications including preterm birth and preeclampsia. These pregnancy complications are very common in the United States, and lead to long term health complications for both mother and Infant. My objective for my post-doctoral fellowship at the ISB is to leverage the experience with placental physiology and pregnancy outcomes I gained during my doctoral studies with the computational resources of the institute of systems biology to learn how to perform multiscale analysis of molecular data in order to obtain a better understanding of the complex molecular changes occurring over the course of pregnancy. This integrated approach will yield new insights into clinical and non clinical interventions which will predict and prevent preterm birth and other pregnancy complications.

Education

PhD, '15, Program in Experimental and Molecular Medicine

Selected Publications

Lesseur C, Armstrong DA, Paquette AG, Koestler DC, Padbury JF, Marsit CJ. Lesseur, C. (2013). Tissue-specific Leptin promoter DNA methylation is associated with maternal and infant perinatal factors. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2013.07.024
Paquette AG, Lesseur C, Armstrong DA, Koestler DC, Appleton AA, Lester BM, Marsit CJ. (2013). Placental HTR2A methylation is associated with infant neurobehavioral outcomes. Epigenetics, DOI: 10.4161/epi.25358
Lesseur C, Armstrong DA, Murphy MA, Appleton AA, Koestler DC, Paquette AG, Lester BM, Marsit CJ. (2014) Sex-specific associations between placental leptin promoter DNA methylation and infant neurobehavior. Psychoneuroendocrinology, DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.10.012
Lesseur C, Paquette AG, Marsit CJ. (2014). Epigenetic regulation of infant neurobehavioral outcomes. Medical Epigenetics, DOI: 10.1159/000361026

Lesseur C, Armstrong DA, Paquette AG, Li Z, Padbury JF, Marsit CJ. (2014). Maternal obesity and gestational diabetes are associated with placental leptin DNA methylation. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2014.06.037
Paquette AG, Marsit CJ. The Developmental Basis of Epigenetic Regulation of HTR2A and Psychiatric Outcomes. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry, DOI: 10.1002/jcb.24883
Paquette AG, Lester BM, Koestler DC, Lesseur C, Armstrong DA, Marsit CJ. (2014). Placental FKBP5 Genetic and Epigenetic Variation Is Associated with Infant Neurobehavioral Outcomes in the RICHS Cohort. PLOS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0104913
Green BB, Armstrong DA, Lesseur C, Paquette AG, Guerin DJ, Kwan LE, Marsit, CJ. (2015) The Role of Placental 11-β Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 1 and type 2 Methylation on Gene Expression and Infant Birth Weight. Biology of Reproduction, DOI:10.1095/biolreprod.115.128066
Paquette AG, Lester BM, Lesseur C, Armstrong DA, Appleton AA, Marsit CJ. (2015) Placental Epigenetic Patterning of Cortisol Response Genes is Associated with Infant Neurodevelopmental Outcomes. Epigenomics, DOI: 10.2217/epi.15.28.
Appleton AA, Murphy MA, Koestler DC, Lesseur C, Paquette AG, Padbury JF, Lester BM, Marsit CJ. (2016) Profiles and Predictors of Infant Neurobehavior in a Healthy Population. Journal of Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1111/ppe.12294
Tyrka AR, Parade SH, Paquette AG, Marsit CJ, Seifer R. (2016) Childhood maltreatment and methylation of FK506 binding protein 5 gene (FKBP5). Dev Psychopathol, DOI:10.1017/S0954579415000991.
Paquette AG, Houseman EA, Green BB, Lesseur C, Armstrong DA, Lester B, Marsit CJ. (2016) Regions of variable DNA methylation in human placenta associated with newborn neurobehavior. Epigenetics, DOI: 10.1080/15592294.2016.1195534.