Decoding the endothelial adhesome - a sticky business

血管生成是新血管从先前存在的血管形成的过程。它发生在胚胎发育期间，对于维持健康的生理过程至关重要，例如月经周期期间的伤口愈合和子宫壁的重建。随着年龄的增长，这一过程的效果越来越差，血管生成的错误调节导致了许多恶性、炎症、缺血、感染和免疫疾病。从而增加对血管生成调节的理解，并允许操纵它来维持健康和修复疾病。该实验室对内皮B3整合素在血管生成过程中的作用感兴趣;内皮细胞是血管生成的关键细胞介质。使用定量质谱，该项目的初始阶段将通过检查当B3整合素表达耗尽时在这个复杂的分子网络内发生的变化来扩展实验室目前对内皮粘附体的分析。然后，我们将专注于B3-整合素依赖的分子途径，以确定其在介导血管生成刺激的内皮迁移中的功能作用。在这个项目中，学生将发展广泛的跨学科技术，包括敲除小鼠，内皮细胞分离，细胞成像，组织培养，免疫组织化学，和生化分析，包括质谱和蛋白质印迹分析，同时跟上快速变化的文献，以便从其他研究和我们自己的实验室的发现可以有效地和及时地沟通。

Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels form from pre-existing ones. It occurs during embryonic development and is essential for maintaining healthy physiological processes such as wound healing and the restructuring of the uterine wall during the menstrual cycle. This process works less effectively as we age and mis-regulation of angiogenesis contributes to a multitude of malignant, inflammatory, ischaemic, infectious and immune disorder. Thus increasing understanding of angiogenesis regulation and allowing manipulation of it to maintain health and repair disease throughout life. The lab is interested in the role endothelial B3-integrin plays in the angiogenic process; endothelial cells are the key cellular mediators of angiogenesis. Using quantitative mass spectrometry the initial stages of this project will extend the laboratory's current analysis of the endothelial adhesome by examining changes that occur within this complex molecular network when B3-integrin expression is depleted. We will then focus on B3-integrin-dependent molecular pathways to determine their functional role in mediating endothelial migration in response to angiogenic stimuli.During this project, the student will develop expertise in a wide range of cross-disciplinary techniques, including working with knockout mice, endothelial cell isolation, cell imaging, tissue culture, immunohistochemistry, and biochemical assays including mass spectrometry and Western blot analyses whilst keeping abreast of rapidly changing literature so that findings from other studies and our own lab can be communicated effectively and in a timely manner.