Angiogenesis: In Vivo Systems, Part a

Angiogenesis is the growth of new blood vessels and is an important natural process in the body. A healthy body maintains a perfect balance of angiogenesis modulators. In many serious disease states, however, the body loses control over angiogenesis. Diseases that are angiogenesis-dependent result when blood vessels either grow excessively or insufficiently. Understanding how angiogenesis "works" and how to control it, will have massive implications on the management, treatments, and ultimately the prevention of many common (and not so common) diseases. Angiogenesis cuts across virtually every discipline. The Angiogenesis Foundation identified angiogenesis as a "common denominator" in our most serious diseases. Excessive angiogenesis occurs in diseases such as cancer, diabetic blindness, age-related macular degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and many other conditions. Insufficient angiogenesis occurs in diseases such as coronary artery disease, stroke, and delayed wound healing.

Isolation of natural angiogenesis inhibitors and their function; Chick CAM models; Ultrastructure analysis of blood vessels; Zebrafish models; Lymphangiogenesis models and applications; Models of vascular permeability; Tumor models to study angiogenesis inhibitors; Studying hemangiomas and vascular malformations; Ocular models of angiogenesis; Models of ischemia and ischemia/reperfusion; Vascular neural patterns; Identification of important genes in vascular development; Imaging of tumor blood vessels; Imaging of blood vessels (in situ terminal models); In vivo assays to screen anti-angiogenic agents; Blood vessel normalization; Patterning (neurons, ECM, EC) during angiogenesis, vascular regression, inhibitors;