Biomimetic Materials Engineering Laboratory



	Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. While there have been tremendous advances in the development of procedures to remove blockages in blood vessels (e.g. angioplasty, bypass surgery, and stent implantation), unfortunately a large number of these cases result in reformation of the blockage - a process known as restenosis. A major cause of restenosis is migration and growth of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). A major effort in the laboratory aims to understand how bioscaffold properties (e.g. structural, mechanical, and chemical) affect VSMC migration and growth. By systematically varying these bioscaffold properties, we hope to gain engineering design principles for the fabrication of not only devices to treat restenosis but also tissue-engineered blood vessels. Our laboratory fosters an interdisciplinary environment that integrates materials science and engineering, cell biology, microfabrication, and microscopy.