Academics
Graduate Program
The Center for Vascular Biology at the University of
Connecticut Health Center offers outstanding
opportunities for research training in the rapidly evolving
field of vascular biology. The Center is the focal point for
vascular research at the Health Center and fosters
interactions among investigators throughout the Health
Center who study
cancer, cardiovascular biology, and other diseases and
biological mechanisms involving the vascular system.
The spectrum of research in the Center is a unique
integration of diverse aspects of vascular biology using
biochemical, molecular, cellular, proteomic, and imaging
approaches to investigate the mechanisms of signal
transduction, gene regulation, apoptosis, endothelial cell
function, and vascular cell-cell interactions, in vitro as
well as in vivo models of vascular development,
angiogenesis, tumorigenesis, metastasis, and cardiovascular
disease. This interdisciplinary focus offers students a
diverse range of innovative technologies at all levels.
Through an outstanding series of seminars, formal and
informal courses, biweekly research-in-progress sessions,
and journal clubs, graduates of this program are well
prepared for careers in biomedical research and education in
the academic, biotechnology, or pharmaceutical fields.
The Center's faculty is primarily members of the Cell
Biology Graduate Program, one of the multidisciplinary areas
of concentration at the Health Center. Specific information on the
program, its requirements, and current students can be found
at Cell Biology Graduate Program's website.
Postdoctoral Training
Postdoctoral training in the Center for Vascular Biology
is available in individual laboratories within a
multi-disciplinary and interactive environment with primary
areas of interest in vascular biology, angiogenesis, signal
transduction, proteomics, RNA biology, and cell biology. The
ongoing research extends from endothelial lipid receptors,
mechanisms of apoptotic cell engulfment in vascular lesions,
developmental vascular biology, hypoxia-mediated control of angiogenic factor expression and the role of peptidases in
pathological angiogenesis.
The fellows are funded through individual research and
training grants. The focus is to foster Postdoctoral career
development through training in methodologies, research
experimental design and interpretation, hypothesis
development and testing, grant and manuscript writing,
interaction with students and technical personnel in
collaborative research, and data and oral presentation skills.
Fellows have easy access to a wide graduate and
medical/dental school curriculum in the form of audit
courses and superb research seminars ranging from vascular
biology to other programs including immunotherapy, microbial
pathogenesis and immunology, neurobiology and molecular
medicine. Postdoctoral fellows are encouraged to present
work in at least one national meeting per year and present
at the internal Center for Vascular Biology seminar meetings
held twice a month.
The center is housed in a state-of-the-art research
building with excellent centralized core facilities for
MS/MS protein sequencing, histology, flow cytometry and
sorting, electron microscopy, microarray and a world-class
imaging core.
Stipends are based upon years of experience and are
modeled along the NIH guidelines. Full health insurance
benefits are covered.
Faculty and Topics
|
Timothy Hla, Ph.D., Director
Role of EDG/S1P receptors in endothelial biology and lipid
mediators modulated by COX-2 in breast cancer progression. |
Kevin Claffey, Ph.D.
Mechanisms of hypoxia-induced VEGF expression via mRNA
stability and role in tumor progression and angiogenesis. |
Ann Cowan, Ph.D.
Advanced imaging applications to cell biology, computational
cell biology tools and image reconstruction. |
Fernando Ferrer, M.D.
Christine Finck, M.D.
Guo-Hua Fong, Ph.D.
Role of VEGF receptors and hypoxia-mediated transcription
factors in developmental vasculogenesis using genetic mouse
models. |
Henry Furneaux, Ph.D.
The regulation of gene expression by microRNAs. |
David Han, Ph.D.
Proteomic and bioinformatics approaches to vascular
remodeling and apoptotic cell engulfment. |
Joel Pachter, Ph.D.
The mechanisms by which leukocytes and pathogens invade the
central nervous system. |
Linda Shapiro, Ph.D.
Cell surface peptidases and their role in tumor and adaptive
cardiac angiogenesis. |
Past Post Doctoral Fellows
|
|
Name |
Advisor |
Year |
Title and Current Position |
|
Nicholas Ancellin |
Timothy Hla |
1998 to 2002 |
Scientist, Glaxo-SmithKline, Paris |
|
Swathi Arur |
David Han |
2000 to 2002 |
Postdoctoral Fellow Washington University, St.
Louis, Missouri |
|
David Bishop-Bailey |
Timothy Hla |
1997 to 1999 |
Assistant Professor, William Harvey Institute, London |
|
Susan Cavar |
Timothy Hla |
2001 to 2002 |
Science Teacher, Connecticut High School |
|
Xinping Chen |
Guo-Hua Fong |
2002 to 2003 |
Postdoctoral Fellow, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee |
|
Chantal Colmont |
Timothy Hla |
1999 to 2003 |
Research Associate, University of Cardiff, Wales |
|
Yu-sheng Cong |
David Han |
2002 to 2004 |
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky,
Lexington, Kentucky |
|
Ellen Fan, M.S. |
David Han |
2002 to 2004 |
University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky |
|
Byeong-Churl Jang |
Timothy Hla |
1999 to 2002 |
Assistant Professor, Korea |
|
Kirsi Narko |
Timothy Hla |
2000 to 2003 |
Research Associate, Helsinki University, Finland |
|
Harunobu Ozaki |
Menq-Jer Lee |
2001 to 2003 |
Cardiologist, Kyoko University |
|
Gopalakrishnan Ramaswamy |
Henry Furneaux |
2001 to 2002 |
Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University, New Haven,
Connecticut |
|
Catherina Rodriquez |
Guo-Hua Fong |
2001 to 2002 |
Instructor, Mexican Institute of Technology |
|
Sibani Sengupta |
Henry Furneaux
Timothy Hla |
2000 to 2003 |
Science Teacher, Private High School |
|
Anita Tandle |
Henry Furneaux |
2001 to 2002 |
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institutes of Health |
|
Ovidiu Trifan |
Timothy Hla |
1997 to 2000 |
Senior Scientist, Monsanto-Searle, St. Louis,
Missouri |
|
Uche Uche |
David Han |
2001 to 2002 |
Teacher, University of Connecticut Education System |
Open Positions
No current positions are available at this time. To check
for availability of an opening visit the
Human
Resources and check out the "Employment Opportunites"
link. Your browser should then be redirected to another
page. On the bottom left-hand side of the page, click on the
"Browse Jobs by Category" link. Available positions will be
listed under the "Research" heading. |