2002 Research Fellow

Charles C. Matouk, MD
University of Toronto

Research Title: Endothelial phenotype in inherited neurovascular disease: Transgenic approaches

The contribution of endothelial cell biology to diseases that target small-vessels of the central nervous system (CNS) has not been rigorously analyzed. Our objective is to utilize in vivo molecular approaches to assess endothelial phenotype in murine models of two representative small-vessel diseases; namely, cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a representative thrombotic microangiopathy. Exciting recent advances in the genetics of cerebovascular disease have implicated loss-of-function mutations in CCM1 and ADAMTS13 genes in the pathogenesis of CCM and TTP, respectively. The overall goal is to develop targeted alleles of the murine CCM1 and ADAMTS13 genes using homologous recombination.

Click here to view  Final Research Report  (PDF 301KB)