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Molly (Mary D) Frame, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
and Physiology/Biophysics
Funding through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes, and through
the American Heart Association (National) .
The focus of our laboratory is to microvascular network blood flow.
We investigate the root mechanisms that enable flow delivery to be coordinated
in the normal state, which factors become unbalanced in peripheral vascular
disease, and how we can promote new vessel growth for clinical use. Our
approach is multi-faceted and includes: genomic and pharmacologic approaches
to investigate the cellular responses; fluid dynamic measurement and computer
modeling to investigate the mechanical components to the responses; nanofabrication
to both construct scaffolding for new vessel growth and to improve our
ability to measure flow parameters, especially fluid shear stress, at
the microfluidics level. The Figure illustrates one way we measure flow,
and exemplifies the type of images the student will generate. Our goal
is to improve our total understanding of coordinated flow delivery both
in health and in disease. This multi-faceted approach truly facilitates
incorporating students with diverse backgrounds to independently address
components to the project.
Figure 1. The combination brightfield
and fluorescence microscopy image shows a small arteriole (20µm
diameter) at the entrance to a microvascular network in the
cheek pouch tissue of the anesthetized hamster. Flow is measured
using fluorescently labeled red blood cells (white dots/streaks).
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The biological sciences students are exposed to the engineering issues
that face this type of research both through appreciation of design problems,
and through the computational approach that we take. The engineering sciences
students are exposed to systems physiology with direct relevance to the
areas of sterile technique, tissue engineering, and clinical disease models.
By assigning independent components to individual students, they take
ownership of the project, and both learn their area and then teach that
area at weekly laboratory meetings; our laboratory stresses cooperative
learning. By taking both a fluid dynamics and systems physiology approach
the spectrum of basic science tools in the laboratory range from computational
fluid dynamics modeling to genomic alterations through adenovirus or double
strand RNA interference to immunohistochemistry to nanofabrication of
scale models of the vasculature. For each tool, understanding of that
tool and the assumptions made during its use are stressed at the fundamental
level. For each experimental question, and for each new finding, direct
applications to the clinical case are stressed.
Contact Information
email: mframe@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
url: http://www.bme.sunysb.edu/bme/people/faculty/m_frame.html
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