Jessica L. Fetterman, PhD

Associate Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Jessica L. Fetterman, PhD, is a basic and translational scientist studying the intersections of mitochondrial physiology, mitochondrial genetics, and cardiovascular disease. She is a member of the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute, a member of the Genome Science Institute, and an ancillary member of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Boston University. She is a Framingham Heart Study Investigator and Fellow of the American Heart Association.

Dr. Fetterman leads a research program focused on studying the role and mechanisms of mitochondrial genetics in cardiovascular pathophysiology using population-level genetics approaches, mechanistic studies in human induced pluripotent stem cells differentiated to cardiovascular cells, and multiomics and systems biology approaches in biobanked human samples. A key barrier in the field is the limited literature studying mitochondrial genetics in human cardiovascular cells and tissues. To facilitate such efforts, her team has developed and published a protocol for biobanking of whole human hearts preserved to maintain the spatial resolution for multiomics, which served as the basis for a funded multi-PI R01 with Deepa M. Gopal, MD, MS, to establish the Framingham Heart Study Cardiovascular Biobank, a program they co-direct called the Lifelong Endowment for Genomic and Cellular DiscoverY (LEGACY).

Her team has ongoing studies manipulating mitochondrial genes implicated in mitochondrial cardiomyopathies and heart failure in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Relatedly, she received a Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award for an innovative approach to targeting nucleotide sequences into mitochondria, a key barrier to the implementation of CRISPR-Cas systems on the mitochondrial genome. The team is also working on creating novel bioinformatics pipelines to enhance our ability to delineate pathogenic and benign variants and to enable the investigation of mitochondrial-nuclear genetic interactions.

She has directly mentored 40 high school students, undergraduates, PhD candidates, medical students, residents, fellows, and early-career faculty, of whom 17 are from groups underrepresented in science and medicine, who have published >39 papers. She has led two American Heart Association fellowship programs. Dr. Fetterman was recognized for her deep commitment to mentorship with the Boston University Department of Medicine Junior Faculty Mentoring Award.

Publications

  • Published 8/3/2026

    Palaniappan LP, Allen NB, Almarzooq ZI, Anderson CAM, Arora P, Avery CL, Baker-Smith CM, Bansal N, Currie ME, Earlie RS, Fan W, Fetterman JL, Barone Gibbs B, Heard DG, Hiremath S, Hong H, Hyacinth HI, Ibeh C, Jiang T, Johansen MC, Kazi DS, Ko D, Kwan TW, Leppert MH, Li Y, Magnani JW, Martin KA, Martin SS, Michos ED, Mussolino ME, Ogungbe O, Parikh NI, Perez MV, Perman SM, Sarraju A, Shah NS, Springer MV, St-Onge MP, Thacker EL, Tierney S, Urbut SM, Van Spall HGC, Voeks JH, Whelton SP, Wong SS, Zhao J, Khan SS. Correction to: 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of US and Global Data From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2026 Aug 04; 154(5):e231-e232. PMID: 42546108.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 7/14/2026

    Nessen EJ, Fetterman JL, Moreira-Bouchard JD. Public Health Frameworks Increase Student's Ability to Propose Solutions Addressing Health Inequity. Adv Physiol Educ. 2026 Jul 14. PMID: 42448332.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/20/2026

    Fisher N, Xue L, Smith KK, Tao B, Cunha JA, Ladenheim S, Moreira-Bouchard JD, Milstone ZJ, Zhebrun A, Zhang X, Jun GR, Stein TD, Ang TFA, Farrer LA, Farb MG, Padera RF, Benjamin EJ, Levy D, Gopal DM, Isaac RS, Lenburg ME, Choi SH, Fetterman JL. Mitochondrial genetic variation across tissues of the human body. Nucleic Acids Res. 2026 May 20; 54(10). PMID: 42179041.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/24/2026

    Jebai R, Ranker LR, Fetterman JL, Chen HY, Hong T, Ross JC. How effective are national tobacco prevention and cessation campaigns in reaching youth? Population assessment of tobacco and health, Wave 7 insights. Addict Behav. 2026 Jul; 178:108651. PMID: 41762946.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/21/2026

    Palaniappan LP, Allen NB, Almarzooq ZI, Anderson CAM, Arora P, Avery CL, Baker-Smith CM, Bansal N, Currie ME, Earlie RS, Fan W, Fetterman JL, Barone Gibbs B, Heard DG, Hiremath S, Hong H, Hyacinth HI, Ibeh C, Jiang T, Johansen MC, Kazi DS, Ko D, Kwan TW, Leppert MH, Li Y, Magnani JW, Martin KA, Martin SS, Michos ED, Mussolino ME, Ogungbe O, Parikh NI, Perez MV, Perman SM, Sarraju A, Shah NS, Springer MV, St-Onge MP, Thacker EL, Tierney S, Urbut SM, Van Spall HGC, Voeks JH, Whelton SP, Wong SS, Zhao J, Khan SS. 2026 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of US and Global Data From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2026 Mar 03; 153(9):e275-e906. PMID: 41562125.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 85 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Other Positions

  • Investigator
    Framingham Heart Study
  • Member, Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute
    Boston University
  • Member, Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
    Boston University

Websites

Education

  • University of Alabama at Birmingham, PhD
  • Ohio Wesleyan University, BA

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