Research focus

​During embryonic development, the cardiovascular system is the first organ system to be established and is essential for providing oxygen and nutrition as well as inductive signals to the developing organs. It has been demonstrated that the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) ligand and receptor (VEGF-R) systems are essential for virtually all aspects of cardiovascular formation and function. Targeted deletion of VEGF and its main receptors leads to early mid-gestational lethality in the mouse as a result of improper or absent cardiovascular development. In order to further determine the role of VEGF/VEGF-R during organogenesis and in the adult, we are using a series of gain/loss of function conditional Cre-loxP as well as doxycyline-tet(o) inducible alleles to specifically investigate the function of VEGFA/VEGF-R as well as downstream transcriptional regulators in various organ systems with a particular emphasis on the role of VEGF signalling in modulating stem cell niches including the hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell niches in the adult bone and in pathological settings such as cancer. We have also begun to study the role of the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) modulators Snai (Snail/Slug) and Zeb (Zeb1/2) family members in hematopoiesis and in the regulation of endothelial to mesenchymal transition events during normal and pathological cardiovascular settings.  We have continued to use and develop novel ROSA26 based transgenic approaches and presently we are developing novel tools to study the development and lineage directed differentiation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for purpuses of cardiovasular cell based tissue engineering approaches in the mouse.