By creating tissue engineered models, we are able to study human mechanisms with human cells in engineered environments that recapitulate the in vivo situation but provides a level of manipulation to ask meaning scientific questions about the disease pathology. We are currently using tissue engineered arteries comprised of human cells for testing physiological blood flows and effects on human cells capable of being infected by HIV. We are also using these tissue engineered arteries for studies of altered hemodynamics with plasma and red blood cells from people with sickle cell disease to understand mechanisms of sickle-induced damage to the arterial wall.

Another example of this work is that we have been collaborating with Dr. Shelly Peyton at University of Massachusetts-Amherst to develop tissue engineered models of metastatic cancer into the bone marrow with fluorescent reporter signatures