Research team
Expertise
My research focuses on identifying drugs for rare aortic pathologies such as Marfan syndrome, Loeys-Dietz syndrome, and non-syndromic thoracic aortic aneurysms. This involves combining transcriptomics data from mouse models with large-scale human genetics to identify potential therapeutic targets. Through gene expression analysis in multiple genetic mouse models, common disease mechanisms are identified that are present across the entire spectrum of aortic pathology, from syndromic to non-syndromic forms. These computationally identified targets are subsequently genetically validated in human populations to confirm their causal role. Finally, existing drugs are experimentally tested in iPSC-derived vascular smooth muscle cells from patients with different genetic backgrounds. This integrated approach aims to lead to repurposed treatments that are broadly applicable for patients with aortic pathology.