Vascular Therapeutics Research
Our division seeks to identify vascular modulatory therapeutic targets/leads for treating human diseases.
Blood and lymphatic vessels play important physiological functions in our body and are dysregulated in various human diseases. Excessive blood or lymphatic vessel growth leads to vascular anomaly including lymphatic malformations and increases the risk of cancer metastasis by providing pathways for cancer cells to disseminate. Inversely, lack of lymphatic vessel growth/regeneration results in primary or secondary lymphoedema, a major burden for post-cancer surgical/radiation therapy patients.
Our division uses the zebrafish model to identify vascular modulatory therapeutic targets/leads for treating these diseases.
Current Research Projects
Lymphoedema is an incurable disease associated with excessive tissue swelling. When left untreated lymphoedema symptoms can worsen, leading to decreased mobility, chronic pain and increased risk of potentially lethal infection. Using cutting-edge methodologies in zebrafish, we seek to understand the mechanisms that drive/inhibit lymphatic regeneration to reveal therapeutic targets for stimulating lymphatic regeneration. We are also using various in vivo (zebrafish) screening approaches to identify pro-lymphangiogenic therapeutics that will be tested on our zebrafish lymphoedema models.
We have a strong track record of using the zebrafish model to identify novel mechanisms of lymphangiogenesis. These mechanisms could be targeted to inhibit pathological lymphatic growth in human diseases. We are particularly interested in RNA helicase DDX21, which we recently found to be selectively required for lymphatic development in zebrafish. We are now investigating the mechanisms that drive this selectivity.
We are also conducting drug screens in zebrafish to identify promising anti-(lymph)angiogenic small molecules.
The optical transparency of zebrafish embryos/larvae allows live-imaging of developing/functional/regenerative/pathological blood and lymphatic vessels at unprecedented resolution. We are developing new biosensor zebrafish transgenics that enable visualization/quantification of various signalling activities in endothelial cells. We will use these biosensor transgenics to elucidate dynamic mechanisms that drive vascular development, maintenance, regeneration, and disease.
Team members
Dr Kazuhide Shaun Okuda (Division Head)
Dr Srdjan Boskovic (Postdoctoral Researcher)
Bhavya Viradia (Research Assistant)
Valeria Impicciche (PhD student)
Ira Ghosh (PhD student)
Pooja Shree Rangaraj (Masters student)
Linda Jiabao Woo (Masters student)