Lisa A. Karstens, Ph.D. (she/her)

  • Associate Professor of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, School of Medicine
  • Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program, School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Karstens is an Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University in the Departments of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology and Obstetrics and Gynecology.  She is also the Co-Division Head of the Division of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at OHSU. Her research interests broadly span using bioinformatics to understand complex human disease. Her current research focuses on using bioinformatic approaches to understand bladder disorders, with a specific focus on understanding how the human microbiome contributes to bladder health and disease.

While Dr. Karstens' research is interdisciplinary, her expertise is in bioinformatics- specifically microbiome, metabolomics, and neuroimaging analysis. She collaborates with clinicians and molecular biologists on a regular basis on a variety of projects.

Teaching and Mentoring

Dr. Karstens teaches Introduction to Programming for the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at OHSU, which focuses on understanding programming logic and is taught in Python. She mentors many types of students ranging from high school students to graduate students and medical fellows. 

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • Ph.D., 2010, Princeton University
    • M.B.I., 2013, Oregon Health & Science University

Areas of interest

  • Microbiome
  • Bioinformatics
  • Women's Health

Publications

Selected publications

  • Community profiling of the urinary microbiota: considerations for low-biomass samples.  Karstens L, Asquith M, Caruso V, Rosenbaum JT, Fair DA, Braun J, Gregory WT, Nardos R, McWeeney SK. Nature Reviews Urology 2018 Oct 12. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 30315209 
  •  Short chain fatty acids ameliorate immune-mediated uveitis partially by altering  migration of lymphocytes from the intestine. Nakamura YK, Janowitz C, Metea C, Asquith M, Karstens L, Rosenbaum JT, Lin P. Sci. Rep. 2017; 7, 11745. PMID: 28924192 
  • Estrogen protection against EAE modulates the microbiota and mucosal-associated regulatory cells. Benedek G, Zhang J, Ngyuyen H, Kent G, Seifert H, Davin S, Stauffer P, Vandenbark A, Karstens L, Asquith M, Offner H. Journal of Neuroimmunology. 2017; 310:51-59. PMID: 28778445 
  • Does the urinary microbiome play a role in urgency urinary incontinence and its severity? Karstens L, Asquith M, Davin S, Stauffer P, Fair D, Gregory WT, Rosenbaum J, McWeeney S, Nardos R. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Biology. 2016 Jul 27;6:78.PMID: 27512653
  • Gut Microbial Alterations Associated With Protection From Autoimmune Uveitis. Nakamura YK, Metea C, Karstens L, Asquith M, Gruner H, Moscibrocki C, Lee I, Brislawn CJ, Jansson JK, Rosenbaum JT, Lin P. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2016 Jul 1;57(8):3747-58. PMID: 27415793
  • Abnormal Functional Connectivity in Women with Urgency Urinary Incontinence: Can We Predict Disease Presence and Severity in Individual Women Using Rs-fcMRI? Nardos R, Karstens L, Carpenter S, Aykes K, Krisky C, Stevens C, Fair D. Neurourology and Urodynamics. 2016; 35(5):563-73. PMID:25933352 
  • Medications are associated with falls in people with MS: A prospective cohort study. Cameron MH, Karstens L, Hoang P, Bourdette D, Lord S. International Journal of MS Care. 2015; 17(5): 207-214. PMID: 26472941
  • Metabolomics approach to human brain spectroscopy identifies associations between clinical features and the frontal lobe metabolome in multiple sclerosis. LK Vingara, HJ Yu, M Wagshul, D Searafin, C Christodoulou, I Pelzcer, L Krupp, M Maleti?–Savati? NeuroImage 2013; 82: 586-594. PMID: 23751863
  •  Optimized pre-processing of UPLC-MS metabolic profiles for improved information recovery. K Veselkov,* LK Vingara,* P Masson, S Robinette, E Want, J Li, B Walther, C Boursier, R Barton, T Ebbels, I Pelczer, J Lindon, E Holmes, J Nicholson. Anal. Chem, 2011; 83, 5864–5872.  PMID: 21526840 *Joint first authors

Publications

  • A cost and community perspective on the barriers to microbiome data reuse

    Frontiers in Bioinformatics
    1. Julia M. Kelliher
    2. Leah Y.D. Johnson
    3. Francisca E. Rodriguez
    4. Jaclyn K. Saunders
    5. Marie E. Kroeger
    6. Buck Hanson
    7. Aaron J. Robinson
    8. Winston E. Anthony
    9. Marc W. Van Goethem
    10. Anders Kiledal
    11. Ahmed A. Shibl
    12. Amanda Araujo Serrao de Andrade
    13. Cassandra L. Ettinger
    14. Chhedi Lal Gupta
    15. Chris R.P. Robinson
    16. Cristal Zuniga
    17. Daniel Sprockett
    18. Douglas Terra Machado
    19. Emilie J. Skoog
    20. Iyanu Oduwole
    21. Jason A. Rothman
    22. Kaelan Prime
    23. Katherine R. Lane
    24. Leandro Nascimento Lemos
    25. Lisa Karstens
    26. Mark McCauley
    27. Mitiku Mihiret Seyoum
    28. Moamen M. Elmassry
    29. Mustafa Guzel
    30. Reid Longley
    31. Simon Roux
    32. Thomas M. Pitot
    33. Emiley A. Eloe-Fadrosh
  • Body mass index and benign prostatic hyperplasia correlate with urinary microbiome diversity and lower urinary tract symptoms in men

    Communications Medicine
    1. Kate R. Bowie
    2. Mark Garzotto
    3. Eric Orwoll
    4. Lisa Karstens
  • Gut microbiome changes with micronutrient supplementation in children with attention–deficit/hyperactivity disorder

    Gut Microbes
    1. Hayleigh K. Ast
    2. Matthew Hammer
    3. Shiqi Zhang
    4. Alisha Bruton
    5. Irene E. Hatsu
    6. Brenda Leung
    7. Ryan McClure
    8. Priya Srikanth
    9. Yuliya Farris
    10. Lydia Norby-Adams
    11. Lisa M. Robinette
    12. L. Eugene Arnold
    13. Jonathan R. Swann
    14. Jiangjiang Zhu
    15. Lisa Karstens
    16. Jeanette M. Johnstone
  • Characterization of pediatric urinary microbiome at species-level resolution indicates variation due to sex, age, and urologic history

    Journal of Pediatric Urology
    1. Maryellen S. Kelly
    2. Erin M. Dahl
    3. Layla M. Jeries
    4. Tatyana A. Sysoeva
    5. Lisa Karstens
  • Urinary microbiome community types associated with urinary incontinence severity in women

    American journal of obstetrics and gynecology
    1. Megan U. Carnes
    2. Nazema Y. Siddiqui
    3. Lisa Karstens
    4. Marie G. Gantz
    5. Darrell L. Dinwiddie
    6. Vivian W. Sung
    7. Megan Bradley
    8. Linda Brubaker
    9. Cecile A. Ferrando
    10. Donna Mazloomdoost
    11. Holly E. Richter
    12. Rebecca G. Rogers
    13. Ariana L. Smith
    14. Yuko M. Komesu
  • A diet rich in fermentable fiber promotes robust changes in the intestinal microbiota, mitigates intestinal permeability, and attenuates autoimmune uveitis

    Scientific Reports
    1. Yukiko K. Nakamura
    2. Christina Metea
    3. Victor Llorenç
    4. Lisa Karstens
    5. Ariel Balter
    6. Phoebe Lin
  • Association between Gut Microbiota and Breast Cancer

    Nutrients
    1. Duygu Altinok Dindar
    2. Brie Chun
    3. Amy Palma
    4. John Cheney
    5. Madeline Krieger
    6. Kristin Kasschau
    7. Keaton Stagaman
    8. Zahi I. Mitri
    9. Shaun M. Goodyear
    10. Jackilen Shannon
    11. Lisa Karstens
    12. Thomas Sharpton
    13. Zhenzhen Zhang
  • Antimetabolite Drugs Exhibit Distinctive Immunomodulatory Mechanisms and Effects on the Intestinal Microbiota in Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis

    Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science
    1. Victor Llorenc
    2. Yukiko Nakamura
    3. Christina Metea
    4. Lisa Karstens
    5. Blanca Molins
    6. Phoebe Lin
  • Axial spondyloarthritis patients have altered mucosal IgA response to oral and fecal microbiota

    Frontiers in immunology
    1. Tejpal Gill
    2. Patrick Stauffer
    3. Mark Asquith
    4. Ted Laderas
    5. Tammy M. Martin
    6. Sean Davin
    7. Matthew Schleisman
    8. Claire Ramirez
    9. Kimberly Ogle
    10. Ingrid Lindquist
    11. Justine Nguyen
    12. Stephen R. Planck
    13. Carley Shaut
    14. Sarah Diamond
    15. James T. Rosenbaum
    16. Lisa Karstens
  • microshades

    Microbiology Resource Announcements
    1. Erin M. Dahl
    2. Emory Neer
    3. Kate R. Bowie
    4. Eric T. Leung
    5. Lisa Karstens
  • Network-Based Differences in the Vaginal and Bladder Microbial Communities Between Women With and Without Urgency Urinary Incontinence

    Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
    1. Rahel Nardos
    2. Eric T. Leung
    3. Erin M. Dahl
    4. Sean Davin
    5. Mark Asquith
    6. W. Thomas Gregory
    7. Lisa Karstens
  • Oral microbiome diversity

    Molecular Oral Microbiology
    1. Puthayalai Treerat
    2. Brian McGuire
    3. Elizabeth Palmer
    4. Erin M. Dahl
    5. Lisa Karstens
    6. Justin Merritt
    7. Jens Kreth
  • The Impact of Local Estrogen on the Urogenital Microbiome in Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause

    Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery
    1. Jennifer Nicole Lillemon
    2. Lisa Karstens
    3. Rahel Nardos
    4. Bharti Garg
    5. Emily R. Boniface
    6. W. Thomas Gregory
  • Updating Urinary Microbiome Analyses to Enhance Biologic Interpretation

    Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
    1. Nazema Y. Siddiqui
    2. Li Ma
    3. Linda Brubaker
    4. Jialiang Mao
    5. Carter Hoffman
    6. Erin M. Dahl
    7. Zhuoqun Wang
    8. Lisa Karstens
  • Benchmarking DNA isolation kits used in analyses of the urinary microbiome

    Scientific Reports
    1. Lisa Karstens
    2. Nazema Y. Siddiqui
    3. Tamara Zaza
    4. Alecsander Barstad
    5. Cindy L. Amundsen
    6. Tatyana A. Sysoeva
  • Forming consensus to advance urobiome research

    mSystems
    1. Linda Brubaker
    2. Jean Philippe F. Gourdine
    3. Nazema Y. Siddiqui
    4. Amanda Holland
    5. Thomas Halverson
    6. Roberto Limeria
    7. David Pride
    8. Lenore Ackerman
    9. Catherine S. Forster
    10. Kristin M. Jacobs
    11. Krystal J. Thomas-White
    12. Catherine Putonti
    13. Qunfeng Dong
    14. Michael Weinstein
    15. Emily S. Lukacz
    16. Lisa Karstens
    17. Alan J. Wolfe
  • Species-level resolution of female bladder microbiota from 16s rrna amplicon sequencing

    mSystems
    1. Carter Hoffman
    2. Nazema Y. Siddiqui
    3. Ian Fields
    4. W. Thomas Gregory
    5. Holly M. Simon
    6. Michael A. Mooney
    7. Alan J. Wolfe
    8. Lisa Karstens
  • The Urinary Microbiome in Postmenopausal Women with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections

    Journal of Urology
    1. Monique H. Vaughan
    2. Jialiang Mao
    3. Lisa A. Karstens
    4. Li Ma
    5. Cindy L. Amundsen
    6. Kenneth E. Schmader
    7. Nazema Y. Siddiqui
  • Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors alter gut microbiota and ameliorate collagen-induced arthritis

    Frontiers in Pharmacology
    1. Lingshu Zhang
    2. Pingfang Song
    3. Xiaowei Zhang
    4. Christina Metea
    5. Matthew Schleisman
    6. Lisa Karstens
    7. Eric Leung
    8. Jun Zhang
    9. Qiang Xu
    10. Yi Liu
    11. Mark Asquith
    12. Cong Qiu Chu
  • Controlling for contaminants in low-biomass 16S rRNA gene sequencing experiments

    mSystems
    1. Lisa Karstens
    2. Mark Asquith
    3. Sean Davin
    4. Damien Fair
    5. W. Thomas Gregory
    6. Alan J. Wolfe
    7. Jonathan Braun
    8. Shannon McWeeney
  • Disruption of intestinal homeostasis and intestinal microbiota during experimental autoimmune uveitis

    Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science
    1. Cathleen Janowitz
    2. Yukiko K. Nakamura
    3. Christina Metea
    4. Abigail Gligor
    5. William Yu
    6. Lisa Karstens
    7. James T. Rosenbaum
    8. Mark Asquith
    9. Phoebe Lin
  • HLA Alleles Associated With Risk of Ankylosing Spondylitis and Rheumatoid Arthritis Influence the Gut Microbiome

    Arthritis and Rheumatology
    1. Mark Asquith
    2. Peter R. Sternes
    3. Mary Ellen Costello
    4. Lisa Karstens
    5. Sarah Diamond
    6. Tammy M. Martin
    7. Zhixiu Li
    8. Mhairi S. Marshall
    9. Timothy D. Spector
    10. Kim Anh le Cao
    11. James T. Rosenbaum
    12. Matthew A. Brown
  • Performance of microbiome sequence inference methods in environments with varying biomass

    mSystems
    1. Vincent Caruso
    2. Xubo Song
    3. Mark Asquith
    4. Lisa Karstens