In July of 2016, Dr Pooneh Bagher was award an APS Career Enhancement Award to visit Dr Brant Isakson’s lab at the University of Virginia. The primary aim of the award was to collaborate and bring the Vascular Cell Co-Culture technique to Texas A&M. In brief, this technique involves culturing vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells on opposite sides of a transwell membrane. This allows for endothelial cells to grow projections, known as myoendothelial junctions, through the membrane to make contact with the smooth muscle layer. The separate layers can then be further processed for protein or mRNA analysis. In March of 2017, the Bagher Lab travelled to the University of Virginia, and spent several weeks working with the Isakson Lab to learn the specifics of the technique and to develop future collaborations.
