I am a neuroscientist, vascular biologist, and neonatologist whose research focuses on how blood vessels regulate brain development and how this biology can be harnessed to treat neonatal brain injury. My long-term goal is to develop therapies that promote regeneration after conditions such as brain hemorrhage by targeting region-specific vascular function. My laboratory studies neurodevelopment through a vascular lens using human tissue, neurovascular organoids, and mouse models.
We have established an interdisciplinary platform integrating human neuropathology, flow cytometry, transcriptomics, imaging, and organoid models to study vascular development in the brain, spinal cord, and, increasingly, other organ systems. Using these approaches, my laboratory identified previously unrecognized vascular cell subtypes in the prenatal human brain, discovered reciprocal interactions between vascular filopodia and neural progenitors, and demonstrated that inflammatory immune cells contribute to vascular instability underlying preterm brain hemorrhage. We are now extending this vascular-centric framework to investigate the contribution of vascular dysfunction to other developmental disorders, including autism and congenital heart disease. Together, these studies provide a foundation for uncovering mechanisms that regulate central nervous system barrier development and identifying new therapeutic opportunities for neonatal brain injury, brain tumors, and other neurological disorders across the lifespan.