Team CHM

Arteries play a crucial role in maintaining health and are compromised in various diseases, from diabetes to hypertension. Yet, in vitro, arterial models represent an unmet need to understand disease progression and develop therapeutics. Our group is bridging this gap by generating a 3D in vitro system with sufficient complexity to recapitulate key characteristics of disease onset, progression, and resolution. We will deploy this organotypic human arterial model to identify key markers of disease progression and test promising therapeutics with the long-term goal of advancing patient treatment. Our model can be applied to many forms of vasculitis, including giant cell arteritis, an aging-associated inflammatory disease that can cause stenosis or aneurysm of the affected arteries and lead to sudden blindness.