Research Bio
My research focus is on vascular cell communication and signaling. Our lab is specifically interested in how the cells of the blood vessel wall communicate with each other, with the surrounding tissue, and with the blood itself. Basically, we're interested in figuring out how microvessels work! Since cardiovascular disease is a major killer of adult populations, and since much of this is vascular disease or disorder, understanding normal blood vessel function seems like a good place to start.
The major tool that we use to ask our questions is confocal immunofluorescent intravital microscopy; we are one of a handful of labs worldwide that is able to image local events in cells of the vascular wall in real time in blood perfused microvessels in living animals.
We also use single microparticle tracking to define the local fluid dynamic environment in vivo, and confocal imaging of signaling molecules and leukocyte populations in the in situ blood vessel.
