Dr. Yadong Wang

Bioengineering & MIRM

Dr. Wang's Profile

The Wang lab is interested in the material's aspect of cardiovascular regeneration. The following projects seek to enable new approaches to critical issues related to cardiovascular regenerative medicine via materials innovation. 1, Tissue engineering of small arteries: this has three sub projects, all aimed at creating arteries with diameters less than 6 mm. 1a, promote elastin synthesis and improve vessel compliance by using novel biodegradable elastomers. This approach leads to synthesis of crosslinked elastin (up to 30% of native amount) by smooth muscle cells (SMCs) without genetic manipulation or excess growth factor. 1b, rapid self assembly of vascular cells to form trilaminar arteries under dynamic mechanical conditions. This method leads to completely SMC-based tubular construct within 3 days. Tri-culture with endothelial cells and fibroblasts are in progress. 1c, couple bone marrow aspirate, elastomeric scaffold, and mechanical conditioning to produce small arteries. Newest approach, SMC-like cells and characteristic elastin autofluorescence observed within 14 days of culture. 2. Controlled growth factor release to promote therapeutic angiogenesis. The aim of this project is to harness the power of heparan sulfate in growth factor stabilization and activation in controlled delivery through self assembly of a biocompatible polycation, heparan sulfate, and the appropriate heparin-binding growth factors. This approach leads to high activity and stability of the growth factors comparable and for certain growth factors, higher than heparin-stabilized controls, and consistently higher than growth factor alone.