Jessica L. Fetterman PhD
Assistant Professor, Vascular Biology
75 E. Newton St | (617) 358-7544jefetter@bu.edu
Sections
Vascular Biology
Centers
Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute
Framingham Heart Study
Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research
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.
Education
Pathology, PhD, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Microbiology, BA, Ohio Wesleyan University
Publications
Milstone ZJ, Moreira-Bouchard JD, Smith KK, Anilkumar A, Gower AC, Alekseyev Y, Cunha JA, Fisher N, Legler L, Lepson J, Tao BS, Williams C, Benjamin EJ, Levy D, Mitchell RN, Padera RF, Shah H, Choi SH, Gopal DM, Tucker NR, Fetterman JL. Multiomics investigation of the female hypertensive human heart. Physiol Rep. 2025 Oct; 13(19):e70586. PMID: 41036600.
Published on 8/23/2025Cornacchione Ross J, Ranker LR, Fetterman JL, Benjamin EJ, Hong T. Public Support for Warning Label Policies on Social Media Among U.S. Adults in 2024. Am J Prev Med. 2025 Aug 23; 69(6):108067. PMID: 40854337.
Published on 8/21/2025Nessen EJ, Xanthakis V, Gopal DM, Fetterman JL, Roberts LM, Moreira-Bouchard JD. Depression, anxiety, stress, and resting blood pressure between cisgender queer and heterosexual emerging adults. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2025 Sep 01; 329(3):H724-H729. PMID: 40839380.
Published on 7/22/2025Jebai R, Hong T, Ranker LR, Wu J, Rohila A, Fetterman JL, Cornacchione Ross J. Social Media Engagement and Quit Intentions Among Youth With Exclusive E-cigarette Use: The Moderating Role of Social Norms. Nicotine Tob Res. 2025 Jul 22; 27(8):1438-1446. PMID: 39912206.
Published on 5/1/2025Toro C, Eromosele OB, Flynn DB, Wilson AA, Kotton DN, Hughes TM, Moreira-Bouchard JD, Post WS, Bertoni AG, Benjamin EJ, Gopal DM, Fetterman JL. Organ Donation for Research Biobanking Among Historically Marginalized Racial and Ethnic Groups: A Systematic Review. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 May 01; 8(5):e2512133. PMID: 40423972.
Published on 3/25/2025Vasquez JH, Yuan J, Leow CJ, Crossey E, Shao F, Carty S, Dominguez VA, Lo M, Mizgerd JP, Fetterman JL, Lau NC, Fine A, Jones MR. Somatic Miwi2 modulates mitochondrial function in airway multiciliated cells and exacerbates influenza pathogenesis. iScience. 2025 Apr 18; 28(4):112291. PMID: 40241756.
Published on 2/5/2025Cooper LL, Majid S, Wang N, Fetterman JL, Palmisano JN, Benjamin EJ, Vasan RS, Mitchell GF, Hamburg NM. Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of smoking behaviour with central arterial haemodynamic measures: the Framingham Heart Study. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2025 Feb 05. PMID: 39907713.
Published on 1/14/2025Moreira-Bouchard JD, Roberts LM, Silva V, Nessen EJ, Smith KK, Streed CG, Fetterman JL. Enhancing student understanding of cardiovascular disease burden in marginalized communities in the physiology classroom. Adv Physiol Educ. 2025 Mar 01; 49(1):230-239. PMID: 39809469.
Published on 12/15/2024Pinheiro A, Petty CA, Stephens CE, Cabrera K, Palanques-Tost E, Gower AC, Marano M, Leviss EM, Boberg MJ, Mahendran J, Bock PM, Fetterman JL, Naya FJ. The Dlk1-Dio3 noncoding RNA cluster coordinately regulates mitochondrial respiration and chromatin structure to establish proper cell state for muscle differentiation. Development. 2024 Dec 15; 151(24). PMID: 39612212.
Published on 12/3/2024Dennison Himmelfarb CR, Benowitz NL, Blank MD, Bhatnagar A, Chase PJ, Davis EM, Fetterman JL, Keller-Hamilton B, Ogungbe O, Page RL, Rezk-Hanna M, Robertson RM, Whitsel LP. Impact of Smokeless Oral Nicotine Products on Cardiovascular Disease: Implications for Policy, Prevention, and Treatment: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2025 Jan 07; 151(1):e1-e21. PMID: 39624904.
Media Mentions
Published on 4/28/2024
New research suggests that exposure to social media can raise the risk of smoking tobacco
Published on 4/24/2024
Daily social media use makes teens more likely to start smoking
Published on 9/23/2020
Survey data indicating teen e-cig use is down may be flawed due to a loophole in flavor ban
Published on 5/9/2020
Vaping Has Same Heart Disease Risk as Smoking
Published on 4/30/2020
E-cigarette Use Causes as Much Vascular Damage as Smoking cigarettes
Published on 4/30/2020
New Study Suggests Vaping Can Damage Our Heart The Same Way Smoking Does
Published on 4/30/2020
Study: E-Cigarettes as Bad for Arteries as Regular Cigarettes
Published on 4/30/2020
Like Tobacco, Long-term E-Cigarettes Harm Vascular Function
Published on 4/30/2020
E-Cigarette, Traditional Cigarette Use Result in Similar Vascular Damage
Published on 4/29/2020
Vaping may damage the heart just as smoking does
View full list of 22 media mentions.