2024 Eugene M. Landis Awardee:
Shayn Peirce-Cottler, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Biomedical Engineering
Harrison Distinguisted Teaching Professor
University of Virginia
Research in the Peirce-Cottler Lab focuses on studying the structural and functional adaptations of the microvasculature during health and disease to develop new therapies for slowing disease progression, restoring homeostasis in diseased tissues, and inducing tissue regeneration. We combine small animal experimental models with computational modeling to examine the multi-cell interactions that drive angiogenesis, inflammation, wound healing, and fibrosis. Our work has examined the role of cell-cell communication in microvascular stability, capillary permeability, inflammatory cell recruitment, and tissue regeneration, with a particular focus on microvascular endothelial cells and pericytes. We develop and deploy in vivo models and analysis techniques for acquiring serial imaging and time-lapse intravital microscopy movies in order to track and quantify the structure and function microvessels over time in living tissues. In collaboration with other researchers at UVA and elsewhere, we have also made extensive use of genetically engineered mouse models to trace cell lineages in injured and diseased tissues to determine how cell-cell interactions over time give rise to pathological microvascular remodeling. Most recently, our investigations have examined pericyte-endothelial cell interactions in the brain in the context of Alzheimer’s Disease and Diabetes and in the lung in the context of pulmonary fibrotic disease.
Recent publications:
El-Ghazawi K, Ukpong E, Peirce SM. (in press) Brain Microvascular Pericyte Pathology Linking Alzheimer’s Disease to Diabetes. Microcirculation.
​​​Comlekoglu T, Dzamba BJ, Shook DR, Sego T.J., Glazier JA, Peirce SM, DeSimone DW. (2024) Modeling the roles of cohesotaxis, cell-intercalation, and tissue geometry in collective cell migration of Xenopus mesendoderm. Biology Open. 13 (8): bio060615. https://doi.org/10.1242/bio.060615.
Bour RK, Garner GT, Peirce SM, Christ GJ. (2024) Optimized Biomanufacturing for Treatment of Volumetric Muscle Loss Enables Physiomimetic Recovery. Tissue Engineering Part A https://doi.org/10.1089/ten.tea.2023.0315.
Haase M, Comlekoglu T, Petrucciani A, Peirce SM, Blemker SS. (2024)​ Agent-based model demonstrates the impact of nonlinear, complex interactions between cytokines on muscle regeneration. eLife. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.91924.2.
Kuper TJ, Islam MM, Peirce-Cottler SM, Papin JA, Ford RM. (2024) Spatial transcriptome-guided multi-scale framework connects P. aeruginosa metabolic states to oxidative stress biofilm microenvironment. PLOS Computational Biology. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012031.
Peirce-Cottler SM, Sander EA, Fisher MB, Deymier AC, LaDisa JF, O'Connell G, Corr DT, Han B, Singh A, Wilson SE, Lai VK, Clyne AM. (2024) A Systems Approach to Biomechanics, Mechanobiology, and Biotransport. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4064547.
