Nathan D. Lawson, PhD, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Nathan D. Lawson, PhD
Nathan D. Lawson, PhD

Research in the Lawson Laboratory focuses on how new blood vessels are formed during embryonic development. To investigate this process, they take advantage of the zebrafish as a model system. They are interested in several aspects of vascular development, including how blood vessel identity is established, how cell behaviors are coordinated during angiogenesis, and how periendothelial support cells (e.g. vascular smooth muscle and pericytes) form during development. They apply both forward and reverse genetic approaches, including the application of programmable nucleases (e.g. CRISPR), as well as in vivo imaging using 2-photon microscopy. Current efforts in the lab also include generation of novel zebrafish vascular disease models and their application to identify therapeutic small molecules.

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References

  1. Moore JC, Sheppard-Tindell S, Shestopalov IA, Yamazoe S, Chen JK, Lawson ND. Post-transcriptional mechanisms contribute to Etv2 repression during vascular development. Dev Biol. 2013 Dec 1;384(1):128-40.
  2. Villefranc JA, Nicoli S, Bentley K, Jeltsch M, Zarkada G, Moore JC, Gerhardt H, Alitalo K, Lawson ND. A truncation allele in vascular endothelial growth factor c reveals distinct modes of signaling during lymphatic and vascular development. Development. 2013 Apr;140(7):1497-506.
  3. Villefranc JA, Nicoli S, Bentley K, Jeltsch M, Zarkada G, Moore JC, Gerhardt H, Alitalo K, Lawson ND. A truncation allele in vascular endothelial growth factor c reveals distinct modes of signaling during lymphatic and vascular development. Development. 2013 Apr;140(7):1497-506.
  4. Shin M, Male I, Beane TJ, Villefranc JA, Kok FO, Zhu LJ, Lawson ND. Vegfc acts through ERK to induce sprouting and differentiation of trunk lymphatic progenitors. Development. 2016 Oct 15;143(20):3785-3795.