AHA Grant to Explore the Innervation of Arterial Grafts
Associate Professor Guohao Dai from the Department of Bioengineering, Assistant Professor Ryan Koppes and Abigail Koppes from the Department of Chemical Engineering were awarded $200K from the American Heart Association (AHA) Innovative Project Award for “Bioengineer an autonomic neurovascular system to explore the innervation of arterial grafts“. Their team will investigate the impact of autonomic neural derived signals on arterialization of vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells using an innovative microphysiological tissue-on-chip system towards better arterialization of vein grafts. The success of this project will allow us to design new bioengineering approaches to improve the current vascular graft strategies for patients with cardiovascular diseases.