With backgrounds that include vascular biology, medicine, pathology, chemical and mechanical engineering, we put our minds together to understand the process that allows the scaffold of blood vessels to change in response to biochemical and physical stimuli. This responsiveness is beneficial for adaptation and repair of blood vessels. However, when the reshaping is incorrect, blood vessels become non-functional. The extreme cases of artery failure can lead to death by clogging or bursting of the arteries (i.e., myocardial infarct/stroke, and aneurysm). We thus seek to find out how blood vessels adapt or are being pushed over the edge. This should lead to effective therapeutic interventions for cardiovascular diseases. Also, we want to apply the knowledge gained from the study of native blood vessels to tissue engineer vascular constructs which could be used as adequate replacements. In our quest, we use a wide array of experimental approaches, including biochemical, morphological, cell and molecular biological techniques.

Find out more about our specific research interests in the words of those who currently drive the projects. And, don’t forget to check out our people! (you can click on each name or picture to reveal facts about the person and her/his research). Finally, you can check out what we do to have fun, since we don't spend ALL of our time in lab.