Regulation of blood and lymphatic vessel development
The goal of my laboratory is to understand how blood vessels grow, differentiate and regress through studying the transcriptional regulation of vascular genes.
The vascular system is a highly branched network of endothelial cell-lined tubes that transports blood, metabolites and waste products throughout the body. In addition to being essential for embryonic development, the formation of new blood vessels is required after injury, during tissue regrowth and repair, and for the growth and spread of solid tumours. However, our ability to manipulate vessel growth for therapeutic aims is hampered by a poor understanding of the mechanisms regulating vessel growth in both physiological and pathological contexts.
To study vessel regulation, my laboratory primarily focuses on the identification, characterisation and delineation of enhancers (cis-regulatory elements) directing gene expression within the vasculature. Enhancers are densely clustered groups of transcription factor binding motifs and are the principal regulators of spatio-temporal patterns of gene transcription. Analysis of the proteins that activate and repress different enhancers is combined with genetic studies to accurately position these factors within complex signalling networks. We are using this approach to understand what makes blood vessels molecularly different from each other, to determine the signalling cascades involved at different stages of vessel growth, and to study these processes in different disease states, and during repair after injury (e.g. after a heart attack).
This work involves a variety of model systems including transgenic mouse and zebrafish, tissue culture and in silico analysis.
Our team
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Sarah De Val
BHF Senior Fellow
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Susann Bruche
Postdoctoral Research Associate
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Lucija Fleisinger
Postgraduate Student
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Svanhild Nornes
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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Sophie Payne
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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Dorota Szumska
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
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Helena Rodríguez Caro
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Latest publications
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Finding and Verifying Enhancers for Endothelial-Expressed Genes.
Journal article
Neal A. et al, (2022), Methods Mol Biol, 2441, 351 - 368
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Characterisation of peri-implantation endometrial Treg and identification of an altered phenotype in recurrent pregnancy loss.
Journal article
Granne I. et al, (2021), Mucosal Immunol
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Maternal iron deficiency perturbs embryonic cardiovascular development in mice.
Journal article
Kalisch-Smith JI. et al, (2021), Nat Commun, 12
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Germline and somatic genetic variants in the p53 pathway interact to affect cancer risk, progression, and drug response.
Journal article
Zhang P. et al, (2021), Cancer Res
What's new
DPAG researchers to take on the London to Brighton Bike Ride for the British Heart Foundation
24 May 2022
Associate Professor Sarah De Val will lead a team of researchers as they take on the British Heart Foundation’s (BHF) London to Brighton Bike Ride.
London Marathon to fund De Val and Vieira Lab research as two of eight handpicked BHF projects
14 February 2022
Two projects aimed at tackling heart failure led by Associate Professor Sarah De Val and Dr Joaquim Vieira are to be funded by the 2022 TCS London Marathon with the British Heart Foundation as its Charity of the Year. The BHF’s runners, who are raising £3 million in funding, will include De Val Lab postdoctoral researcher Dr Alice Neal.
Potential strategy identified to improve blood vessel growth after heart attack
22 July 2019
A collaborative paper from the De Val and Smart Groups has established multiple regulatory pathways responsible for the formation of blood vessels in the developing heart. In doing so they have identified a crucial pathway that is repressed in the adult heart after injury, which may hold the key to a new and improved strategy for repair.
Collaborations & Funding
Collaborators
Prof Nicola Smart (Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, Oxford): Vessel formation in the injured heart.
Dr Gillian Douglas (Ratcliffe Department of Medicine, Oxford): Regulatory pathways active in cardiovascular pathologies.
Prof Adrian Harris (Department of Oncology): Transcriptional networks active during different modes of tumour angiogenesis.
Prof Ralf Adams, Prof Mukesh Jain, Prof Mark Kahn, Prof Martin Schwartz and Prof Michael Potente (Leducq Transatlantic network): The Transcription Factor KLF2 and Cardiovascular Disease
Current Funders
British Heart Foundation (Personal Senior Fellowship; Project Grant; DPhil Studentships)
Medical Research Council (Project Grant)
Leducq Fondation (Transatlantic Network of Excellence)
John Fell Fund (Pilot Grant)
BHF Oxford Centre of Excellence (Pilot Grants)
Join the De Val Lab
PhD students
My lab is always keen to recruit talented students. I accept DPhil students through both the Departmental scheme and through the British Heart Foundation 4-year DPhil scheme.
Postdoctoral Scientists
Current vacancies for postdoctoral scientists can be found on the Oxford University and DPAG Vacancies web pages. Alternatively, I am always happy to discuss opportunities for suitable applicants to secure fellowship funding.
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