Mechanisms controlling the formation of blood and lymphatic vessels

Dr. Karina Yaniv, Department of Biological Regulation

karina.yaniv@weizmann.ac.il

The main interest of the Yaniv lab is to understand the mechanisms controlling the formation of blood and lymphatic vessels during embryonic development and pathological conditions.

The development of the vascular system is one of the earliest events in organogenesis. All other organs depend on a vascular supply for delivery of nutrients, oxygen, and for clearance of wastes.

In recent years, it has become clear that many of the signals implicated in embryonic vascular development are reactivated during disease states such as tissue ischemia, coronary heart disease and cancer-promoted angiogenesis. This has further reinforced the potential medical relevance of vascular development studies such as those carried out in Dr. Yaniv’s laboratory.

The lab offers live imaging of tumor angiogenesis in zebrafish embryos, study of the mechanisms of vascular development, angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis and research into underlying blood and lymphatic vessel formation in normal and pathological conditions.