Research Topics
Vascular anomalies are rare disorders of blood vessels. They include abnormal blood vessel growths and tumors that can cause serious illness—and sometimes death—in infants, children, and young adults. Diagnosing these conditions often requires taking a tissue biopsy, which can be risky. In some cases, the biopsy itself can make the disease worse or trigger dangerous complications.
Many current treatments for vascular anomalies do not work well and do not cure the disease. As a result, patients often need to take medications for the rest of their lives, and the disease may still continue to worsen. Some patients experience problems with blood clotting, severe pain, or visible disfigurement, all of which can greatly reduce quality of life and, in severe cases, be life‑threatening.
The goals of our research group are to:
- Find blood-based diagnostic markers that can be measured with a simple blood test, reducing the need for risky tissue biopsies and making it easier to diagnose the disease and track how well treatments are working.
- Create better disease models using human cells and genetic approaches to better understand how vascular anomalies develop and progress.
- Identify and test new drug targets that lead to more effective treatments with fewer side effects.
Diseases Under Investigation: Kaposiform Lymphangiomatosis (KLA) and other RAS-mutation driven vascular anomalies.
