Gorav Ailawadi MD, MBA   Aortic Aneurysms are the 15th leading cause of death in the United States and corrective aneurysm repair through either open or endovascular surgery remains the only treatment therapy for this deadly disease. Often, aneurysms remain clinically undiagnosed and under-represented as many deaths perceived to be from cardiac arrest are actually from aneurysm rupture. Aneurysms are anatomically divided by their location in reference to the diaphragm with thoracic aneurysms (TAAs) located above while abdominal aneurysms (AAAs) are located below the diaphragm. Recent evidence suggests that these diseases have different disease pathologies that could be based on the embryological origin of the aortic layer and thereby could have different medical treatment therapies. Sadly, the mechanisms of aortic aneurysm formation and advanced aneurysm disease leading to rupture remain largely unknown. It is unknown why some patients have small aneurysms that rupture while other patients rupture at considerably larger aortic diameters. Dr. Ailawadi and his team seek to understand the mechanisms that regulate aortic aneurysm rupture in abdominal and descending thoracic aortic aneurysms. He and his team have spent a number of years developing novel animal models for the study of aneurysm rupture and utilize these models to develop medical therapies to halt disease progression or prevent rupture.

Brendon Baker, PhD  My lab studies how structure and mechanics of the cellular microenvironment guide fundamental cell processes such as migration, proliferation, and extracellular matrix synthesis.  We develop synthetic biomaterials that mimic the 3D and fibrous nature of stromal or interstitial tissues which are critical to the function of vascular and cardiac tissues.  Combined with molecular tools, live imaging, microfabrication/fluidic techniques, and multi-scale mechanical characterization, these materials allow us to model, study, and control the interactions between cells and their surroundings.  Ultimately, our aim is to 1) provide insight into extracellular matrix-mediated diseases such as fibrosis and 2) use material cues to direct cell function for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.  

Tae-Hwa Chun, MD, PhD    Our research is focused on extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling in obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. In the body, metabolically active mesenchymal cells are surrounded by a fibrous network of ECM proteins, for example, collagens, elastin, and fibronectin. Embedded within the dense network of ECM proteins, fat cells (adipocytes) and their precursor cells constantly change their shape and function in response to nutritional and hormonal cues. 

L. Michel Espinoza-Fonseca, PhD   The goal of my group is to understand the fundamental molecular motions and interactions that are responsible for regulating calcium transport in muscle cells, and to design pharmacological therapies to treat human diseases associated with dysregulation of calcium transport in the heart. My laboratory pursues two areas that relate closely to each other: 1) Fundamental biophysics of calcium pump regulation and functional adaptation, and 2) Therapeutic modulation of cardiac calcium pump activity, specifically by small molecules targeting allosteric effector sites in the transmembrane domain of the protein. We approach these multidisciplinary problems with a combination of computational methods and experimental techniques. We welcome summer students interested in computational and/or experimental work.

Mario Fabiilli, PhD   The Fabiilli lab develops ultrasound-based therapies with a focus on biomaterials for drug delivery and tissue regeneration, including strategies for blood vessel and bone growth. The Fabiilli lab leverages ultrasound-induced effects to non-invasively and spatiotemporally modulate both biochemical and biophysical signals to direct cell behaviors.

Jonathan Haft, MD and Alvaro Rojas Pena, MD ECMO Lab:  The laboratory runs a wide variety of surgical and bioengineering research projects, including the development of artificial lungs, artificial kidneys, biomaterials, and techniques for expanding the pool of donated organs.  Artificial lungs are a particular focus, with work on several different generations of implantable artificial lungs, new gas exchange membranes, and new applications for these devices, such as an artificial placenta, ECMO assisted organ donation, ECMO assisted cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and ex-situ solid organ (heart, lungs, kidneys) and composite tissue allografts preservation and conditioning to transplantable status.

Todd Herron, PhD  Our research relies on the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells to generate patient-specific hearts in vitro for disease modeling, drug testing, and therapy development. We utilize 2D monolayers of the purified patient-specific heart muscle in high throughput electrophysiology screens to enable robust data acquisition and rigorous scientific analysis. Additionally, we utilize 3D-engineered heart tissues to generate patient-specific heart muscle with physiologically relevant features. Students in my laboratory will learn to work with patient-specific stem cells to generate heart tissues in vitro for analysis using a combination of molecular biology, fluorescent microscopy, optical mapping, and metabolic phenotyping approaches.

David Humes, MD  Development of biomimetic devices to treat acute and chronic organ disorders. Our lab does preclinical large animal studies, molecular, biochemical and cell assays, and evaluates biomarkers of patients being treated with our innovative devices.

Young Park, PhD   Our research group is creating point-of-care (POC) technologies that enable precise, quick, and sensitive detection of important biomarkers associated with the state of illnesses.  

Anna Schwendeman, PhD  Dr. Schwendeman’s long-term research goal is to design highly potent and safe synthetic high-density lipoprotein (HDL) nanomedicines for treatment of atherosclerosis. Dr. Schwendeman spent 12 years in pharmaceutical industry at Cerenis Therapeutics, Pfizer, and Esperion Therapeutics. She was involved in discovery and translation of several HDL therapies to Phase II clinical trials. Her efforts led to development of a kilo-scale recombinant process for Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I - main HDL protein) for the largest-to-date Phase II sHDL clinical trial (>500 patients). Her current research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms of how phospholipid composition of HDL affects its potency and pharmacokinetics and designing novel ApoA-I mimic peptides. Her laboratory has several ongoing translational projects focused on assessing sHDL’s utility for treatment of atherosclerosis, sepsis, Alzheimer's disease and lupus as well as for use these “nature-made” nanoparticles for targeted delivery of drugs to the arteries.  

David Sherman, PhD  Drug Discovery and Development Efforts Employing Unique Chemical Diversity Resources against Cardiovascular Targets:  The University of Michigan Center for Chemical Genomics, and the recently initiated Center for the Development of New Medicines provides state-of-the-art resources for drug discovery and development programs. These include high throughput screening, medicinal chemistry and pharmacokinetic resources. 

Laurie, Svoboda, PhD  My research program is focused on understanding the sexually dimorphic effects of developmental chemical exposures on cardiac differentiation and long-term cardiovascular health. My team and I utilize mouse and induced pluripotent stem cell models to investigate how lead (Pb), perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), arsenic, and phthalate plasticizers disrupt the sex-specific epigenetic and metabolic processes that underlie normal cardiovascular development and differentiation.  We can carve out a project that aligns with these overall goals for a SURF student.

Zhong Wang, PhD  Our long-term goal is to develop heart therapies to effectively prolong and improve the lives of heart patients. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the world and is often accompanied by defective blood vessel networks in the heart. One research interest is to define the epigenetic mechanism mediated by ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling in cardiac progenitor specification and differentiation. A second interest is to define essential cross-talk between energy metabolism and epigenetics in heart repair and regeneration. A third interest is to explore novel strategies to generate cardiac progenitor cells and engineered cardiac tissues suitable for heart regeneration. A fourth interest is to identify epigenetic factors and small molecules/drugs in stimulating heart regeneration. 

Bo Yang, MD, PhD  Our research is focused on the unknown mechanism of thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA), especially in those with unknown genetic mutations. Under the efforts by our research team which combines different expertise of molecular/cellular biology, bioengineering, and vascular surgery, we first create patient-specific induced pleuripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from various kinds of TAA patients, such as bicuspid aortic valve (BAV), Loyes-Dietz Syndrome, and Marfan syndrome. We then perform in vitro disease modeling to recapture aortapathy of these disease using both 2D cell culture and 3D pulsatile physiologic-mimic bioreactors.  With lab-made tissue engineering blood vessels (TEBVs) that derived from patients’ vascular smooth muscle cells, we further implant patient-specific TEBVs into immunodeficient animals to model human TAA in vivo with the aims of knowing the physiopathology of human TAA and developing the strategy for drug therapy. Taking the advantage of new CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing, we have successfully corrected the specific TAA patient’s mutation in patient-derived iPSCs and provided a new platform to study the mechanism of human TAA in the levels of molecular and cell biology, organogenesis, as well as body vascular system.