Jussara do Carmo

Jussara do Carmo, PhD, is Associate Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center School of Medicine. Her research focuses on metabolic and cardiovascular regulation by the central nervous system, particularly examining how leptin-melanocortin signaling protects against cardiac and renal injury. Current investigations explore sex-specific responses to cardiorenal stress and the developmental programming of hypertension via parental obesity.

Research themes include:

• Leptin-mediated protection against ischemia/reperfusion injury
• Sex differences in blood pressure regulation
• Parental obesity and offspring cardiovascular programming
• Mitochondrial dysfunction in diabetic-hypertensive kidney injury
• CNS control of metabolic disorders

Dr. do Carmo utilizes chronic instrumentation techniques in rodent models, echocardiography, and molecular analyses to investigate neural control of cardiovascular and renal function. Her work has identified novel cardioprotective effects of central leptin administration and characterized sex-specific developmental programming effects with NIH-supported research.