Understanding what controls new blood vessel growth

Spatiotemporal control of endothelial tip/stalk cell identity in angiogenesis

Dr Shane Herbert and his team at the University of Manchester are studying angiogenesis, or new blood vessel growth. Angiogenesis plays a major role in diseases such as coronary heart disease, arthritis and cancer. We need to understand how angiogenesis is controlled to develop new treatments to treat these diseases. During angiogenesis, blood vessel cells need to acquire specialised ‘tip’ cell behaviour. Tip cell behaviour coordinates how blood vessel cells move when new blood vessels sprout from existing vessels. During this process, proteins called VEGFRs become activated in tip cells, but we don’t understand how this activation happens. Dr Herbert has discovered that a gene called TM4SF1 is important and controls tip cell behaviour during angiogenesis. In this project, he will complete a variety of experiments using zebrafish to work out how VEGFR activity is controlled by the TM4SF1 gene. He will determine if tip cell activation of TM4SF1 ultimately drives tip cell behaviour and new blood vessel formation. This research will find out if TM4SF1 plays a key role in controlling VEGFR activation, tip cell formation and new blood vessel branching. It could unveil new ways to control angiogenesis with drugs.