I graduated from UCLA in 2010 with a BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. I joined the Silva Lab at UC Davis in Fall 2011 as one of our first graduate students.
Therapeutic angiogenesis provides a promising approach to treating many ischemic diseases. With efforts to restore blood flow, this method often involves the delivery of angiogenic factors, including chemotactic molecules and progenitor cells capable of forming blood vessels, to the ischemic tissue. However, achieving and maintaining localization of these factors within the target tissue remains challenging. My research pursues the hypothesis that local, spatiotemporally controlled delivery of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) within a novel biomaterial system will provide therapeutic angiogenesis in murine ischemic hindlimbs. Here, I aim to effectively recruit endogenous blood vessel forming endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) from circulation to ischemic tissue and promote subsequent angiogenesis to restore blood flow.