Raj Wadgaonkar

Biography

Raj Wadgaonkar is currently working as Associate Professor in the department of Cell Biology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, United States of America.

Research Interest

The general focus of the Wadgaonkar laboratory is to investigate signaling mechanisms underlying endothelial cell activation and vascular injury related transcriptional regulation. To achieve this, a multi-faceted investigative approach is being taken; combining mouse modeling techniques with basic biochemical and cell biological studies. This approach provides a powerful means of dissecting gene function on a molecular and cellular level, as well as in the context of vascular injury and angiogenesis. Lab members have developed several vascular injury models, including pulmonary artery ligation, endotoxin induced sepsis and lung injury models. We are studying several pathways, including endothelial sphingolipid signaling, apoptosis and NFkB dependent inflammatory and survival pathways during vascular injury. A second major interest is to train the clinical fellows in bed to benchside research. We have developed sickle cell anaemia and pulmonary hypertension project, where the lab members are studying the circulating pluripotent endothelial cells and characterizing the phenotype in sickle cell disease vs pulmonary hypertension related endothelial cell activation. Lab members are also pursuing a large scale whole genome scan using Affymetrix chips to identify SNPs and alleles that are associated with inflammation, lung injury and pulmonary hypertension associated with sickle cell disease.