BTG: Investigating vascular cell fate using micro-patterned cell arrays and extended time-lapse imaging

Cardiovascular disease occurs when blood vessel structure changes through proliferation of cells in the vessel wall. The source of these cells is the vessel itself but precisely which cell(s) proliferate is unclear. Understanding their origins is a prerequisite for informed development of treatment. To investigate this, we will combine micro-patterned cell array technologies with long-term, timelapse imaging to develop new approaches for simultaneously monitoring the fate of large numbers of cells obtained from vascular cell isolations. Array architectures will be created to isolate the various cell types, probe cell-cell interactions and investigate how these interactions affect cellular differentiation and proliferation.