Highlight
Novel Methodology to Identify New Endogenous Antiangiogenic Peptides
Achievement/Results
IGERT Fellow Jacob Koskimaki is working with Drs. Karagiannis and Popel using nano-bio tools to study angiogenesis. Angiogenesis, or neovascularization, is the process of blood vessel formation from a pre-existing vessel network. The formation of new vessels is tightly regulated by endogenous peptides that promote or inhibit this process, and aberrations can lead to pathological conditions including cancer. By integrating computational and experimental approaches we have introduced a novel systematic methodology to identify previously unknown endogenous antiangiogenic peptides. Based on the results from the in vitro screening, we have evaluated the ability of the peptides to suppress angiogenesis in several in vivo assays including the aortic ring, subcutaneous basement-membrane-extract filled angioreactors, corneal micropocket, and various tumor xenograft models.
Address Goals
IGERT Fellow Jacob Koskimaki is a deeply trained Biomedical Engineer working at the interface of biological and physical science to create new tools to address biology. He has emerged as a leader int the journal tutorial club, and is boldly staking out new areas of research. The training of Jabob himself, and the development of the approach that he brings to bear on his research is the primary NSF strategic goal of the highlight.
Jacob is pushing the frontiers of understanding and regulating angiogenesis, which is fundamentally important, with implications in tissue engineering to cancer metastisis. The discoveries made in his work is the secondary NSF goal represented in this highlight.
