Current Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Alisa Morss Clyne is currently an Associate Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Dr. Clyne is director of the Vascular Kinetics Laboratory, which investigates integrated mechanical and biochemical interactions among cells and proteins of the cardiovascular system. She is particularly interested in how endothelial cell mechanotransduction changes in a diseased environment, and how fluid shear stress and substrate mechanics affect biochemical binding kinetics, transport, and signaling.
Dr. Clyne received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1996. She worked as an engineer in the GE Aircraft Engines Technical Leadership Program for four years, concurrently earning her Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. In 2006, she received her Doctorate in Medical and Mechanical Engineering from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. In 2014, she completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering (ELATE) program.
Dr. Clyne received the NSF CAREER award in 2008, an AHA National Scientist Development Grant in 2010, and the BMES-CMBE Rising Star award in 2011. She has received research and educational funding from NSF, NIH, AHA, Department of Education, the Nanotechnology Institute, and the State of Pennsylvania, and she has published in diverse journals including Lab on a Chip, Journal of Biomechanics, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Tissue Engineering, Biophysical Journal, PLOSOne, JBC, and Circulation. She is a fellow of ASME and the AHA, and a member of ASEE, BMES, NAVBO, and SWE. Her teaching focuses on mechanical engineering applications in biological systems, and she founded several programs to enhance diversity within engineering.
Postdoctoral Research Associates
Gurneet Sangha
Research interests: Gurneet is fascinated by the mechanisms through which exercise mitigates cardiovascular disease. His curiosity has led him to integrate mechanobiology, preclinical imaging, and exercise physiology research to investigate how exercise preserves cardiovascular health. Gurneet’s long-term goal is to use his discoveries to develop diagnostics that help clinicians identify patients needing exercise intervention and monitor if the prescribed exercise is effective. To do this, Gurneet is currently studying how exercise-induced shear stress affects red blood cell nitric oxide production and extracellular vesicle contents to mitigate endothelial dysfunction, the initial hallmark of vascular disease.
Contact email: gsangha@umd.edu
Pattie Mathieu
Research interests: Pattie’s current work looks at the interplay between vascular metabolism and mechanobiology with projects including investigating how glutamine metabolism influences vascular smooth muscle cell glucose metabolism and studying how cell alignment can change vascular smooth muscle cell metabolism. Additionally, she is supervising the development of a contractile artery-on-a-chip. Ultimately, she hopes to use her knowledge of vascular smooth muscle cell mechanotransduction and metabolism to pursue research in vascular calcification.
Contact email: pmathieu@umd.edu
Graduate Students
Callie Weber
Research interests: My research is focused on identifying sex differences in endothelial cell metabolism. Specifically, I am working with iPSC-derived brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs) to determine how sex may influence glucose metabolism in these cells, and how dysregulation of glucose metabolism in these cells may lead to Alzheimer’s disease. I am also interested in the influence of shear stress on BMECs and its influence on glucose metabolism.
Contact email: calliew@umd.edu
Bilal Moiz
Research interests: I am interested in understanding and exploiting transport mechanisms across the blood-brain barrier for the purpose of developing therapeutics for neurological disease such as Alzheimer’s. I plan to utilize a combination of computational modeling and experimental data to further my understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
Contact email: bmoiz@terpmail.umd.edu
Marzyeh Kheradmand-Hajibashi
Research interests: My research is on improving the current knowledge of endothelial cell metabolism. I am testing different levels of fatty acids, glucose, and amino acids to track their effects on coronary artery endothelial cell metabolism using mass spectrometry combined with isotope metabolic flux analysis (iMFA).
Contact email: marzykh@umd.edu
Lauren Smith
Research interests: I am interested in studying cross-talk between red blood cells and endothelial cells particularly in disease states such as diabetes. One point of interest for me is understanding why women are more likely to suffer from vascular complications of diabetes than men.
Contact email: lvsmith@umd.edu
Undergraduates
Morgan Pettebone
Major: Bioengineering
Research interests: I am interested in understanding how differences in environmental and flow conditions alter endothelial cell functionality. Specifically, I am interested in how extracellular vesicles produced by red blood cells impact endothelial cells and how the pathways of these extracellular vesicles are affected by exercise-mimicking flow conditions.
Contact email: pettebonem@yahoo.com
Andrew Li
Major: Bioengineering
Research interests: My research interests include the use of computational models to estimate and evaluate pathways of interest in endothelial cells. Primarily, I am interested in the effect of certain therapeutics on the interconnected nature of cellular metabolism.
Contact email: andrewJli999@gmail.com
Annie Barnes
Major: Bioengineering
Research interests: My research interests are the mechanisms behind exercise training’s impact on vasculature health in various conditions, like sex and diet. Specifically, I will be studying how exercise training impacts perivascular adipose tissue(PVAT)-derived extracellular vesicles and how these extracellular vesicles mediate smooth muscle cell phenotype.
Contact email: anniebarnes117@gmail.com
Angela Sun
Major: Bioengineering
Research interests: I am interested in understanding how different environmental conditions alter the endothelial cell metabolome and how these changes may be implicated in cardiovascular disease.
Contact email: 2002angela@gmail.com
Xavier Garcia-Collazo
Viviana Alpizar
Claire Kettula
Brooke Wunderler
Highschool Students
Matthew John
Intended Major: Biomedical Engineering or Applied Economics
Research Interests: I am currently working to culture endothelial cells in a GelMA microchannel with flow to build on the Lab’s current Artery-on-a-Chip project.
Contact Email: mjohn124@umd.edu