Principal Investigator Roger Kamm
Formation of new blood vessel from an existing branch, by a regulated process known as angiogenesis, governs vascular patterning in the body and determines the distribution of nutrients and oxygen supply. Angiogenesis has essential roles in development, reproduction and repair but also occurs in tumor formation and in a variety of diseases. The lab studies the angiogenic process by computational modeling across multiple scales and by in vitro microfluidic experiments that mimics in vivo biophysical and biochemical microenvironment. We showed that angiogenic endothelial cells seeded in contact with collagen gel can be induced to form nascent angiogenic sprouts in microfluidic which later develop into a vascular network.
To understand the single cell decisions in angiogenesis at the signaling level, we model individual cell as a decision making entities and follow individual cell as they make decisions in angiogenic conditions. In collaboration with the Lauffenburger lab at MIT, we attempt to elucidate how such single cell decision might be governed by an intracellular signaling by measuring the intracellular changes in signaling activities upon stimulating cells with potent factors that induce and suppress sprout formation.