BIOENGINEERING CONTRIBUTIONS IN VASCULAR BIOLOGY AT THE CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR-LEVEL

Bioengineers and vascular biologists have enjoyed a successful symbios is over the last two decades. In particular bioengineers and life scie ntists have begun to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie normal physiological and pathophysiological vascular bio logy. One conclusion of importance is that fluid mechanics and mass tr ansfer are closely integrated with and actively modulate blood and vas cular cell function. Examples include flow regulation of receptor spec ificity in leukocyte/endothelial cell adhesion and wall shear stress a nd mechanical strain modulation of gene expression in endothelial and smooth muscle cells. The continued synthesis of cell and molecular bio logy with systems analysis, mass transport phenomena, and quantitative modeling will allow the development of patient-specific therapeutics with applications in inflammation, atherosclerosis, thrombosis, sickle cell disease, and cancer metastasis.