Meet The Speaker
“On Growth Factors and Vascular Form: the VEGF Family in Angiogenesis and Arteriogenesis”
Feilim Mac Gabhann graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering. He completed his PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2007 at Johns Hopkins University, working with Aleksander S. Popel to create mathematical models of growth factor networks. The models built using this work are harnessed to understand both positive and negative regulation of blood vessel growth, which makes them applicable to diseases as diverse as peripheral artery disease and cancer. Dr. Mac Gabhann moved to the University of Virginia as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Cardiovascular Research Center. Working with Shayn M. Peirce and Thomas C. Skalak, he conducted experimental research on microvascular remodeling in mouse skeletal muscle.
Dr. Mac Gabhann joined Johns Hopkins University as an Assistant Professor in 2009. As well as being a part of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the lab is in the Institute for Computational Medicine, a world’s-first institute focused on the application of mathematical modeling to the understanding and treatment of human disease. The Mac Gabhann lab studies mathematical models of disease and therapeutics, including peripheral artery disease, cancer, ALS, pre-eclampsia and HIV. The experimental side of the lab conducts independent studies of vascular remodeling in mice, protein transport in microfluidic cell culture devices and cell behavior novel scaffold constructs. In addition, tissue imaging and other experiments are conducted to generate parameters for the models and to validate mathematical predictions.
Dr. Mac Gabhann is a Sloan Research Fellow, as well as being the recipient of a K99/R00 NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the 2010 August Krogh Young Investigator Award from the Microcirculatory Society, and the 2012 Arthur C. Guyton Award for Excellence in Integrative Physiology from the American Physiology Society. He is the author of 35 peer-reviewed papers, and is an Associate Editor for PLoS Computational Biology and BMC Physiology.
Note: Light lunch will be served starting at 1:00pm. The presentation will begin at 1:30pm.
Seminar Abstract
“On Growth Factors and Vascular Form: the VEGF Family in Angiogenesis and Arteriogenesis”
Like most complex morphogenesis processes, the growth and remodeling of blood vessel networks is directed by the concentration gradients of secreted growth factors. Our laboratory uses a combination of computational and experimental techniques to determine how the endothelial cells that line the vasculature ‘see’ and respond to growth factors. In particular, we study the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family. The complexity of this family makes it an ideal subject for quantitative computational modeling: five genes each encode multiple splice-isoform ligands that can bind to three receptor tyrosine kinases and two non signaling co-receptors. Using a broad range of experimental data at the molecular, cellular and tissue levels, we develop biophysically and physiologically realistic multi-scale simulations of growth factor transport and therapeutic interventions.
