Metabolic surveillance of vascular development and homeostasis

General scientific objectives

Development and preservation of a healthy vasculature is vital for organogenesis and organ maintenance in adulthood. Endothelial cells form the inner lining of blood vessels and are critically involved in many physiological functions. Recent findings have highlighted that “endothelial adaptation” is determined to a large extent by metabolites which regulate cellular bioenergetics, serve as building blocks for DNA, RNA and proteins and as signaling molecules through post-translational modification of proteins. By making use of multi-omic approaches, stem cell methodologies, genetic mice and human material we investigate how metabolites regulate endothelial cell specification, homeostasis and disease phenotypes.Currently we study how metabolism regulates epitranslatomic and epigenetic mechanisms to control endothelial cell development, heterogeneity and disease states (i.e. atherosclerosis, pulmonary arterial hypertension and aging). Our aim is to unravel novel metabolic based therapies for the preservation of endothelial cell function.