Uncovering novel regulators of angiogenesis

The survival of heart muscle after a heart attack requires the formation of new blood vessels. However, this often does not happen efficiently, resulting in significant damage to the heart tissue as it cannot access the oxygen and nutrients necessary for survival. The growth of new blood vessels involves specialized types of cells expressing a very specific pattern of genes, therefore attempts to increase growth of new blood vessels in damaged tissue requires a detailed understanding of the pathways that regulate this process. My lab specialises in the study of gene enhancers, which act as the on-off switches for genes. Here, we will generate new models to study enhancers which are switched on only during the early stages of new blood vessel growth, towards a longer term aim of understanding the proteins that bind and activate these enhancers.