Vanderbilt researchers achieve key step toward engineering resistance vessels

Researchers at Vanderbilt University have discovered how to get human smooth muscle cells to organize themselves into the tiny vascular structures that help regulate blood flow throughout the body. Led by graduate student Victoria Vest and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Leon Bellan, the team’s work could lead to better models of cardiovascular disease, new avenues for drug discovery and perhaps one day even to engineered tissues that could be implanted and work much like the body’s own microvascular networks.