Arispe Group

Annmarie Dominguez graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2018 with a BS in Chemistry. Shortly thereafter, she completed a two-year rotational program at a biotechnology company that specialized in developing therapeutics for patients with life-threatening illnesses. Annmarie formally joined the Arispe lab in the summer of 2021, shortly after completing a rotation with the group. At the time, she worked alongside Jocelyn Salvador to examine the effects of chromatin distribution in the mouse aortae, within regions experiencing different types of blood flow. She is now spearheading her own thesis project uncovering the key molecular interactions within the Notch-1 signaling pathway that drive the polarization of aortic endothelial cells in the presence of physiological laminar flow.

Katiannah Moise is a third-year grad student in the Arispe Lab. She used to study the protein components of the eggshell of the C. elegan embryo before joining the lab in 2019. A big worm nerd! As a member of the Arispe lab, her project revolves around investigating the molecular mechanism that drives cell shape dysfunction in endothelial cells in the context of inherited vascular diseases like that of Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT). She is investigating how microtubule dynamics, specifically, post-translational modifications of microtubules are regulated by BMP signaling and laminar flow to maintain cell shape. Understanding what drives aberrant endothelial cell responses to flow when there are loss of function mutations in BMP will bridge the gap in understanding how arteries and veins fuse to form vessel malformations in HHT.

Ana is a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Luisa Iruela-Arispe at the Feinberg School of Medicine - Northwestern University (Chicago). She is particularly interested in the dysregulation of the RAS-MAPK signaling pathway and its role in the formation of vascular anomalies. Her research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms induced by mutations in the RASA1 gene in endothelial cells and how they result in the emergence of vascular malformations in the context of flow. As a graduate student at the University of Valencia (Spain), Ana's PhD work focused on the role of circulating microRNAs in acute myocardial infarction and endothelial cell function. She was also involved in the effects of estrogen in the regulation of endothelial-derived mediators and age-associated vascular dysfunction.

Danielle graduated from the University of Pennsylvania '17 with a BA in English and Biology. She carried out her thesis project at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she studied intestinal malabsorptive diseases using an organoid model. Danielle joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at Northwestern in 2019 and became a member of the Arispe Lab in 2021. Her current research interests include mechanisms that underlie vascular development and regeneration that can be potentially harnessed for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Jocelyn Salvador began her PhD studies in the Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology program at UCLA and is now a PhD student in the Driskill Graduate Program at Northwestern. She graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in biomedical engineering (BS) and then worked as a post-baccalaureate fellow in Dr. George E. Davis' lab where she focused on microtubule dynamics during endothelial morphogenesis using 3D matrices. Jocelyn is interested in EC mechanobiology, especially in the context of fluid shear stress, and in the Arispe lab she is able to combine her interests and expertise to study endothelial cytoskeletal dynamics under different flow conditions in vitro and in vivo, and effects of aging on endothelium.