Professor Costanza Emanueli

Vascular Pathology and Regeneration

Research in my laboratory aims at finding new therapeutic options for patients with peripheral and cardiac ischaemia. Our efforts are organised in 2 synergic themes: 1) discovering and developing new regenerative approaches (with special emphasis on embryonic stem cells-derived vascular progenitor cells and on NGF gene therapy); and  2) better understanding of molecular mechanisms causing vascular sufferance, especially in diabetes (special focus here is on microRNAs, epigenetics and the p75NTR receptor of neurotrophins).

Our research approach spans from molecular expressional studies, cell biology, in vivo ischaemia and diabetes models and work on clinical samples, with the final objective of translating our science to the clinical use.

We have a series of clinical and non-clinical collaborators in Bristol and elsewhere and we are parts of 2 international consortia of researchers, including  the VASCULAR MICRORNA CONSORTIUM ( www.vascularmirnas.com), investigating the role of micro RNA in vascular biology and medicine, and RESOLVE (http://resolve.punkt-international.eu/index.php?id=6), investigating common wound healing models in different tissues.

Major collaborators in this moment are prof Madeddu and his team, here in Bristol (multiple collaborations are ongoing with this team), as well as Prof Andrew Baker and associates in Glasgow, whith whom we are developing ESC-endothelial cells for critical limb ischemia. We are also collaborating with cardiac and vascular surgeons teams in Bristol, London (UCL) and Milan-Italy.

Research keywords

• endothelial cells
• vascular cells
• neurotrophins
• ESCs (embryonic stem cells)
• angiogenesis

Membership of professional bodies

• vascular disease
• diabetes
• limb ischaemia
• myocardial infarct

Processes and functions relevant to this work

• angiogenesis
• vascular regeneration