BIOENGINEERING
David A. Vorp, PhD
123 Benedum Hall | 3700 O’Hara Street | Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Associate Dean for Research Professor of Bioengineering, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Surgery, and the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute Director, Vascular Bioengineering Laboratory
P: 412-624-5317 vorp@pitt.edu www.engineering.pitt.edu/VorpLab/
Vascular Bioengineering Laboratory Mission Pathologies of the vascular system are tightly linked to biomechanical alteration of the vessel wall during disease. By applying our strengths in computational and experimental biomechanics, image analysis, cellular and molecular biology, and tissue engineering, our research mission is to develop regenerative treatments for vascular diseases such as aortic aneurysm and coronary heart disease. In addition to our research mission, we aim to train the researchers of tomorrow using the most cutting-edge
technology available. Ongoing projects in the lab include: • Assessing the mechanopathobiology of thoracic and abdominal aortic aneurysm • Creating a novel regenerative therapy for abdominal aortic aneurysm • Developing a human stem cell-based tissue engineered vascular graft • Characterizing the biomechanics of cerebral aneurysms, including changes that occur with coil embolism therapy
• Using a novel ex-vivo perfusion system to simulate the biomechanical milieu of vascular diseases • Extending our biomechanical analysis to other tubular structures such as the urinary tract, intestine, and esophagus Our best assets for collaboration pertain to the thrusts of vascular biomechanics and vascular tissue engineering.
Vascular Biomechanics: Our group performs both experimental and computational biomechanics studies on tubular tissues; recent studies have focused on aneurysms of the aorta (thoracic and abdominal) and cerebral arteries but we also have experience with the ureter, esophagus, and intestine. On the experimental end, we perform extensive mechanical testing of tissues including tensile and compression tests, indentation tests, perfusion tests, and dynamic mechanical tests. Using mechanical properties determined from experimental testing we build strain energy function models of these tissues and computationally analyze the progression of degenerative disease. We also work with imaging collaborators at the School of Medicine to obtain structural information on human blood vessels; the geometries of these tissues have allowed us to computationally model stress distributions and develop rupture potential indices. Vascular Tissue Engineering: Our group is developing an autologous tissue engineered vascular graft (TEVG) utilizing adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AD-MSCs) seeded into tubular porous synthetic scaffolds. Utilizing our novel cell seeding device which applies rotation and vacuum to a lumenally infused cell suspension, we are able to seed our vascular grafts rapidly, evenly, and efficiently. Our TEVG has remained patent during rodent implantation, remodeling extensively in vivo towards a blood vessel-like architecture. A unique slant to our investigation in recent years has been testing AD-MSC from patients at high cardiovascular risk, such as diabetics and the elderly; determining if these patient populations will be suitable for autologous therapy will be critical in designing the next generation of vascular grafts.
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DEPARTMENT OF BIOENGINEERING