Biophysical Regulation of Vascular Differentiation and Assembly

Dr. Gerecht earned bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Following a postdoctoral training at MIT, she joined Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins in 2007, with a joint appointment in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Since 2017, she is the Director of the Institute for NanoBioTechnology at  Johns Hopkins.Dr. Gerecht’s research group focuses on the interactions between stem or cancer cells and their microenvironments to engineer artificial niches capable of guiding vascular cell decisions. The long-term goal of her research is to identify and design therapeutics for regenerative medicine and cancer. Dr. Gerecht is the recipient of the Allan C. Davis Medal from the Maryland Academy of Sciences (2008), the North America Vascular Biology Organization Junior Investigator Award (2009), the Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Research Award from the March of Dimes Foundation (2009-2011), the National Scientist Development Award (2008-2012) and Established Investigator Award (2014-2019) both from the American Heart Association, the National Science Foundation CAREER award (2011-2016), the W.W. Smith Charitable Trust Heart award (2014-2017), and the JHU Inaugural President’s Frontier Award (2015). Dr. Gerecht is an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2016). She is the author of more than 150 papers, book chapters, and patents in her field. Dr. Gerecht is a co-founder of Gemstone Biotherapeutics, LLC, a spin-off company based on technologies developed in her lab, focusing on wound healing.

• Preface.- Embryonic and Adult Stem Cells in Vasculogenesis and Angiogenesis.- Extracellular Matrix and Matrix Metalloproteinase in Vascular Morphogenesis.- Scaffolding for Three-Dimensional Embryonic Vasculogenesis.- Matrix Viscoelasticity and Remodeling During 3D Vascular Assembly.- Biomechanical Properties of Implanted Scaffolds Affect Human Blood Vessel Formation From Circulating Endothelial Colony Forming Cells.- Oxygen Regulation of Adult Angiogenesis.- Hypoxia During Embryonic Vascular Development and Differentiation.- Three-Dimensional Regulation During Cancerous Angiogenesis.- Microfluidics to Control Shear and Oxygen Flow for Vascular Differentiation.- Cyclic Strain and Surface Shape for Engineered Vasculature Constructs.- Matrix Topography and Viscoelasticity Guide Vascular Assembly.