Jakob Alden

Third-year medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Experience with six years of academic research including diverse personal and professional experiences. Desires new and challenging opportunities to make meaningful contributions to the medical community. Works diligently on teams with consistent effort to develop a welcoming environment for patients and healthcare professionals.

2022 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Annual Conference

FCMSC Research Scholar - Oral Presentation for the Whitaker Platform Session

Epstein Barr Virus, not Herpes Simplex Viruses, is associated with Multiple Sclerosis

• Reviewed the current understanding of multiple sclerosis and its complicated etiology
• Assessed literature correlating infection by Herpes Viruses including HSV-1 HSV-2 and EBV with the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis
• Presented our findings correlating EBV seropositivity with a diagnosis of MS
• Discussed future implications of EBV results in clinical care and diagnosis

2023 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Annual Conference

FCMSC Research Scholar - Poster Presentation

Patient and Provider Perspectives on the Ethics of Screening for Multiple Sclerosis

• Conducted independent research assessing the views of MS patient family members and MS healthcare professionals on a hypothetical screening program.
• Presented qualitative and quantitative data collected from patient and provider surveys
• Reviewed results showing favorable attitudes towards increased observation and potential interest in hypothetical screening procedures for individuals with a family history of MS

Taxonomic sampling and rare genomic changes overcome long-branch attraction in the phylogenetic placement of pseudoscorpions

Ontano, Andrew et al.
Molecular Biology and Evolution. June, 2021.

Phylogenomic resolution of sea spider diversification through integration of multiple data classes

Ballesteros, Jesús et al.

Molecular Biology and Evolution. February, 2021.

Systemic paralogy and function of retinal determination network homologs in arachnids 

Gainett, Guilherme & Ballesteros, Jesús & Kanzler, Charlotte & Alden, Jakob & Zern, John & Aharon, Shlomi & Gavish-Regev, Efrat & Sharma, Prashant

BMC Genomics. November, 2020. 

Reading Across the Disciplines

12 manuscripts that discuss cross-disciplinary reading strategies for college students.

Contributions by Joyce Tang Boyland, M. Soledad Caballero, Yvonne Davila, Heather C. Easterling, John Eliason, Nelson Graff, Rosemary Green, Neela Griffiths, Rachel Henry, Pat Hutchings, Rebecca Kersnar, Aimee Knupsky, Ryne Leuzinger, Margaret Mackey, Elizabeth Marquis, Trent W. Maurer, Brett McCollum, Layne A. Morsch, Daniel Shapiro, Catelyn Shipp, Dana Statton Thompson, Kris Vasquez, Jakob T. Alden, Angela Zito and Jordan R. Donovan

Indiana Press. May, 2022

Epstein Barr Virus, but not Herpes Simplex Viruses, is associated with Multiple Sclerosis
Authors: Jakob Alden*, Mokshal H. Porwal*, Samantha O’Dell, DeAnna Finnessy, Amber Salter and Ahmed Z. Obeidat 

*JA and MHP contributed equally to this work