Members’ Labs

July 1, 2026   Professor and Senior Associate Chair Department of Biomedical Engineering University of Florida   Primary Research: Spanning 20 years, Dr. Murfee’s laboratory has thrived at the intersection of biomedical engineering, physiology, biomechanics and vascular biology. His laboratory bridges research silos by integrating approaches across fields. As one example, his laboratory developed a…

May 1, 2026   Team Director Laboratory for Vascular Morphogenesis RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research   Primary Research: My lab aims to understand how blood vessels are built and shaped into a hierarchical tubular network of arteries, veins and capillaries of optimal connections and size. We are particularly interested in endothelial cell mechanobiology –…

April 1, 2026 Assistant Professor Cardiovascular Sciences Houston Methodist Research Institute   Primary Research: Ischemic cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of disability, morbidity, and mortality globally. The ability to restore or enhance the microvasculature would be a major advancement in regenerative medicine and cardiovascular therapies. Our lab uses a unique multidisciplinary approach to study…

March 1, 2026 Professor Medicine (Cardiovascular) and Genetics Yale University   Primary Research: Cardiovascular and lung diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality globally. My laboratory utilizes multi-disciplinary approaches to investigate how blood vessels initially form, are maintained and go awry in disease. We primarily focus on cells of the vascular wall, known as…

February 1, 2026 Assistant Professor Department of Cell Biology and Physiology University of North Carolina Chapel Hill   Primary Research: Our lab investigates the mechanisms of vascular network plasticity in organ growth and regeneration. We study this question in the uniquely regenerative mammalian liver. The liver remarkably recovers its original size and function following physical…

January 1, 2026 Professor Department of Medicine (Cross-appointed to Biochemistry; and to Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology) University of Toronto   Primary Research: Our lab works at the interface between vascular biology and innate immunity. We have particular expertise in the study of endothelial transcytosis of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (one of the first steps…

December 1, 2025 Assistant Professor Division of Surgical Sciences Department of Surgery Duke University School of Medicine   Primary Research: Our lab investigates the cellular and molecular pathways governing vascular regeneration and cell–cell crosstalk in the context of lung injury-repair and disease. We are particularly interested in how vascular networks regenerate, communicate, and contribute to…

November 1, 2025 Associate Professor Cardiac Surgery Boston Children’s Hospital | Harvard Medical School   Primary Research: Our lab studies how blood vessels form and applies this knowledge to regenerative medicine. We investigate the mechanisms of vascular cell differentiation and vessel assembly, with the goal of engineering functional vascular networks for therapeutic use. Current projects…

October 1, 2025 Assistant Professor Howard Hughes Medical Institute Rutgers University   Primary Research: The O’Brown Lab investigates how the blood–brain barrier (BBB) is built during development and how it becomes compromised in disease. Using zebrafish as a primary model, alongside mouse models for cross-species validation, we combine live imaging, genetics, and single-cell approaches to…

August 1, 2025 Assistant Professor Department of Internal Medicine Division of Medical Genetics UTHealth McGovern Medical School   Primary Research: My lab works on molecular and epigenetic mechanisms driving smooth muscle cell fate specification and to assess how those pathways or chromatin remodeling changes are altered in patients with moyamoya disease. Moyamoya disease (MMD), characterized…