Research Center Affiliation:

• Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies»

General Areas of Research:

· Cellular Engineering
· Biomedical Engineering
· Tissue Engineering
· Biomechanics
· Biofluids
· Bioengineering

Research Activities:

Vascular endothelium plays an increasingly important role in many physiological and pathological processes in cardiovascular system. The functional phenotypes of the vascular endothelium are constantly modulated by its surrounding environments, including interactions with blood components, smooth muscle cells, extracellular matrix and biomechanical forces. Dysfunctional endothelium can contribute to the pathogenesis of many vascular diseases such as inflammation, thrombosis, atherosclerosis and failure of vascular graft. Therefore, study how endothelial cell interacting with its environment is critical for us to understand vascular disease process, and to generate better designs in tissue engineering of vascular graft and/or microvasculature for organ regeneration.

Currently, the research programs in my laboratory focus on two goals: (1) to integrate bioengineering into vascular research; to gain mechanistic insights of how endothelial cells interact with biomechanical forces and extracellular matrix in the blood vessel regeneration and vascular disease processes; (2) to identify targets associated with specific cellular phenotype in diseased blood vessels and develop technologies for targeted drug delivery and molecular imaging of those vasculatures. To accomplish these research programs, we will use multidisciplinary approaches combining various methods including engineering design, experimental and computational fluid mechanics, micro-fabrication, cellular and molecular techniques. There are excellent opportunities for collaboration with our BME faculty in the field of tissue engineering, biomaterials, cell mechanics as well as our colleagues at Albany Medical College.