Description of Research Expertise

Overview of laboratory research: Mechanobiology of aging and cardiovascular disease

Rick Assoian is interested in understanding how cells sense changes in the physical properties of their microenvironment and how they convert this information into chemical signals, behavior and function. His particular focus has been to understand how changes in the stiffness of the extracellular matrix (ECM) affect adhesion receptor signaling, the actin cytoskeleton, intracellular forces, and fate decisions (such as proliferation and differentiation) in arterial aging and disease. Early work with Michael Sporn at NIH included the purification and characterization of transforming growth factor-beta.