Event
BIOE Seminar Series: Feilim Mac Gabhann
Friday, February 17, 2017
9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m.
Pepco Room (1105), Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
Dr. Steven Jay
smjay@umd.edu
Feilim Mac Gabhann
Associate Professor
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Johns Hopkins University
VEGF isoforms and the ECM: therapeutic insights from computational models
The five vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) genes in humans each produce multiple different splice isoforms, totaling dozens of proteins. These proteins each have different binding affinities for the VEGFR receptor tyrosine kinases, for co-receptors, and for components of the extracellular matrix (ECM). To understand how these proteins compete or synergize to coordinate the sprouting of new blood vessels (angiogenesis), we have built and validated computational models of the VEGF-VEGFR system. We use these models to understand experimental observations from in vitro cell culture, from preclinical tests of therapeutic interventions in mice, and from clinical trials in humans. In this talk I'll focus particularly on the impact of differential signaling by VEGF isoforms that are freely diffusing and VEGF isoforms that are immobilized to the ECM.
