Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Cosette Wheeler, Ph.D.
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
University of New Mexico HSC
1816 Sigma Chi Rd. Bldg.191
Albuquerque, NM 87131

Office: BRF 121
Tel: (505) 272-5785
Fax: (505) 277-0265
E-mail: cwheeler@salud.unm.edu

Keywords: Human papillomaviruses, cervical cancer, molecular epidemiology, vaccine development

Research Interests
Dr. Cosette M. Wheeler is a Professor in the Departments of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology and a member of the Epidemiology and Cancer Control Program at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center. Dr. Wheeler has served as a Research Associate for the U.S. National Research Council, and as scientific fellow for both the National Science Foundation and the American Social Health Association.

Her training as a molecular biologist, virologist and epidemiologist was conducted at both the University of Arizona and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her ongoing research efforts are mainly focused on identifying both viral and host markers of risk for cervical cancer and its precursor lesions. This research activity has received over a decade of continuous support from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and has been co-funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. As Principal Investigator of the HPV Testing Quality Control group for the National Cancer Institute’s ALTS randomized clinical trial on the management of low-grade cervical abnormalities, her group has supported national translational research efforts. Her group has also participated in contributing to a growing body of information important to implementing worldwide vaccine strategies that target human papillomaviruses (HPVs), the cause of abnormal Pap smears and cervical cancer.

Dr. Wheeler's expertise in the molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases and cancer have resulted in appointments as Chairperson for the Etiology and Prevention Study Section, California Breast Cancer Research Program, and to the University of California: Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program. Her research program has supported the Association for the Advancement of Women in Science specifically through considering gender differences in disease outcomes. She has acted as an advisor to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Cancer Society as well as to the International Agency on Research Against Cancer, Lyon, France, the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland and the Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica, Cuernavaca, Mexico in support of their efforts to understand and prevent cervical cancer in developing countries.

Selected Publications
Arias-Pulido H, Joste N, Wheeler CM. Loss of heterozygosity at 6p21.3 is associated with the presence of the drb1*1501-dqb1*0602 haplotype in hpv-16 positive cervical carcinoma in situ patients. Genes, Chromosomes and Cancer. 2004; 40:277-84.

Fife KH, Barr E, Brown DR, Schiff MA, Jansen KU, Hobson NE, Barber H, Chiaccherini L, Smith PR, Suhr G, Wheeler CM. Dose-ranging studies of the safety and immunogenicity of human papillomavirus type 11 and type 16 virus-like particle candidate vaccine in young healthy women. Vaccine. 2004; 22: 2943-2952.

Sherman ME, Wang SS, Wheeler CM, Rich L, Gravitt PE, Tarone R, Schiffman M. Determinants of human papillomavirus load among women with histological cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3: dominant impact of surrounding low-grade lesions. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2003; 10:1038-44.

Emeny RT, Paliard X, Jansen K, Hunt WC, Palker T, Barr E, Wheeler CM. Priming of human papillomavirus type 11-specific humoral and cellular immune responses in college-aged women with a virus-like particle vaccine. J Virol. 2002; 76:7832-7842.

Koutsky LA, Ault KA, Wheeler CM, Jansen KU, Barr E, Alvarez FB, Chiacchierini LM. Results from a phase II human papillomavirus virus-like particle vaccine efficacy trial. New England Journal of Medicine.2002; 347:1646-1651.

Peyton CL, Gravitt PE, Hunt WC, Hundley RS, Zhao, MF, Apple RJ, Wheeler CM. Determinants of genital human papillomavirus detection in a US population. J Infect Dis 2001; 183:1554-1564.

Juárez-Figueroa LA, Wheeler CM, Uribe-Salas FJ, Conde-Glez CJ, Zamilpa-Mejía LG, García-Cisneros S, Hernández-Avila M. Human Papillomavirus: A highly prevalent sexually transmitted disease agent among female sex workers in Mexico City. Journal of Sexually Transmitted Diseases 2001; 28(3):125-130.

Wang SS, Wheeler CM, Hildesheim A, Schiffman M, Herrero R, Concepcion Bratti M, Sherman ME, Alfaro M, Hutchinson ML, Morales J, Lorincz A, Burk RD, Carrington M, Erlich H A, Apple RJ. HLA class I/II alleles and risk of cervical neoplasia: results from a population-based study conducted in Costa Rica. In press. J Infect Dis.2001;184:1310-1314.

The ALTS Study Group. Human papillomavirus testing for triage of women with cytologic evidence of low grade squamous intraepithelial lesions: Baseline data from a randomized trial. J Natl Cancer Inst 2000; 92:397-402.

Gravitt PE, Peyton CL, Apple RJ, Wheeler CM. Genotyping of 27 human papillomavirus types by using L1 consensus PCR products by a single-hybridization, reverse line blot detection method. J Clin Micro 1998; 36:3020-3027.

Yamada, T., M. M. Manos, J. Peto, C. A. Greer, N. Munoz, F. X. Bosch, and C. M. Wheeler. 1997. Human papillomavirus type 16 sequence variation in cervical cancers: a worldwide perspective. J. Virol. 71: 2463-2472.

Becker, T. M., C. M. Wheeler, N. S. McGough, C. A. Parmenter, S. W. Jordan, C. A. Stidely, R. S. McPherson, and M. H. Dorin. 1994. Sexually transmitted diseases and other risk factors for cervical dysplasia among southwestern Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women. J.A.M.A. 271:1181-1188.

Apple, R. J., H. A. Erlich, W. Klitz, M. M. Manos, T. M. Becker, and C. M. Wheeler. 1994. HLA DR-DQ associations with cervical carcinoma show papillomavirus-type specificity. Nature (Genetics) 6:157-162