Cara Westmark

Associate Professor of Neurology

Preclinical research on dietary effects on mouse models of neurological disease with a focus on fragile X syndrome, autism and Alzheimer’s disease

Website

Type: Faculty Trainer

Department: School of Medicine and Public Health

BS, Clarke University
PhD, University of Notre Dame
Postgraduate Fellowship, University of Notre Dame
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Evidence of Central Nervous System Dysfunction in Association With Soy Protein-Based Infant Formula

Cara J Westmark

Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety. 2026 June 20.
Reassessing Mandatory Folic Acid Fortification for Neural Tube Defect Prevention: Evidence, Uncertainty, and Policy Implications

Cara J Westmark

Nutrients. 2026 June 12.
Soy Protein Isolate Affects Blood and Brain Biomarker Expression in a Mouse Model of Fragile X

Brynne Boeck, Yingqing Mao, Ruo-Pan Huang, Cara J Westmark

International journal of molecular sciences. 2025 July 12.
Soy-based purified ingredient diet affects mouse gut permeability and the microbiome in fragile X mice

Cara J Westmark

Frontiers in molecular neuroscience. 2025 April 7.
Prophylactic or Poison: The Folic Acid Debate

Cara J Westmark

WMJ : official publication of the State Medical Society of Wisconsin. 2025 February 5.
Bibliometric Analysis and a Call for Increased Rigor in Citing Scientific Literature: Folic Acid Fortification and Neural Tube Defect Risk as an Example

Brynne Boeck, Cara J Westmark

Nutrients. 2024 August 10.
Adult Inception of Ketogenic Diet Therapy Increases Sleep during the Dark Cycle in C57BL/6J Wild Type and Fragile X Mice

Pamela R Westmark, Timothy J Swietlik, Ethan Runde, Brian Corsiga, Rachel Nissan, Brynne Boeck, Ricky Granger, Erica Jennings, Maya Nebbia, Andrew Thauwald, Greg Lyon, Rama K Maganti, Cara J Westmark

International journal of molecular sciences. 2024 June 27.
Effects of Soy Protein Isolate on Fragile X Phenotypes in Mice

Pamela R Westmark, Greg Lyon, Alejandra Gutierrez, Brynne Boeck, Olivia Van Hammond, Nathan Ripp, Nicole Arianne Pagan-Torres, James Brower, Patrice K Held, Cameron Scarlett, Cara J Westmark

Nutrients. 2024 January 23.
On-Tissue Spatial Proteomics Integrating MALDI-MS Imaging with Shotgun Proteomics Reveals Soy Consumption-Induced Protein Changes in a Fragile X Syndrome Mouse Model

Min Ma, Qinying Yu, Daniel G Delafield, Yusi Cui, Zihui Li, Miyang Li, Wenxin Wu, Xudong Shi, Pamela R Westmark, Alejandra Gutierrez, Gui Ma, Ang Gao, Meng Xu, Wei Xu, Cara J Westmark, Lingjun Li

ACS chemical neuroscience. 2023 December 18.
Toward an understanding of the role of the exposome on fragile X phenotypes

Cara J Westmark

International review of neurobiology. 2023 November 22.
Ketogenic Diet Affects Sleep Architecture in C57BL/6J Wild Type and Fragile X Mice

Pamela R Westmark, Aaron K Gholston, Timothy J Swietlik, Rama K Maganti, Cara J Westmark

International journal of molecular sciences. 2023 October 14.
Diet in treatment of autism spectrum disorders

Sabiha Alam, Cara J Westmark, Elizabeth A McCullagh

Frontiers in neuroscience. 2023 July 26.
Improving Reproducibility to Enhance Scientific Rigor through Consideration of Mouse Diet

Cara J Westmark, James Brower, Patrice K Held

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI. 2022 December 23.
Increased Incidence of Epilepsy in Response to Soy-Based Infant Formula in a National Korean Cohort Study

Cara J Westmark

The Journal of nutrition. 2022 May 5.
Effects of Soy-Based Infant Formula on Weight Gain and Neurodevelopment in an Autism Mouse Model

Cara J Westmark, Mikolaj J Filon, Patricia Maina, Lauren I Steinberg, Chrysanthy Ikonomidou, Pamela R Westmark

Cells. 2022 April 23.

Dr. Westmark’s basic and translational science research laboratory studies pharmaceutical and dietary interventions for the treatment of fragile X syndrome, autism and Alzheimer’s disease with a focus on the synaptic function of amyloid beta protein precursor (APP) and amyloid-beta. She employs mouse models of neurological disorders and human survey data to correlate promising treatments with improved behavioral (seizure, cognitive, hyperactivity/sleep) and biomarker data.

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Lily’s Fund Fellow (2022)
Distance Teaching & Learning scholarship winner, UW-Madison (2019)
Brain Research Foundation Seed Grant Program finalist (2018)