Kimberly Cooney

Dr. Kimberly Cooney received her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Her graduate research focused on the intracellular signaling of the Melanocortin-4 Receptor, a receptor involved in regulating food intake. During her graduate career, she was a recipient of a UAMS fellowship with the initiative for Maximizing Student Development program that focused on promoting diversity in Biomedical Sciences.  She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Rebecca Levit’s lab at Emory University where she is examining the role of the Adenosine 2A receptor in regulating neutrophil extracellular traps in chronic disease states.

Andrea McAlester

My name is Andrea McAlester and I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine. I completed my PhD in the department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University. My doctoral research, in the lab of Dr. Alyssa Hasty, focused on identifying transcriptional changes in adipose tissue macrophages that contributed to disease progression during obesity. After receiving my PhD, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Gretchen Diehl at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) where I now study the impact of dietary factors in altering the tissue repair functions on intestinal macrophages and how this could impact intestinal function.