Naoki Kaneko
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Intracranial aneurysms are bulges in the walls of brain arteries. When they rupture, they can cause severe disability or death, and doctors have no reliable way to predict which ones will grow or burst.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
- Topics
intracranial aneurysm
brain aneurysm
aneurysm rupture
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Determine which endothelial cell (vessel-lining cell) signaling pathways are associated with unstable wall remodeling in human intracranial aneurysms, using tissue imaged by micro-CT and multiphoton microscopy.
- Correlate harmful endothelial cell responses with aneurysm growth, using repeated clinical images of growing aneurysms, surgical video and blood-flow analysis.
- Determine how endothelial cells respond to characteristic abnormal flow patterns, such as high-friction impinging jets and low-friction oscillating flow, using the patient-specific 3D Live EC Aneurysmal Flow Simulator (3D LEAFS).
More about the research
Abnormal blood flow is closely tied to growth and rupture, for example flow jets that strike the wall with high friction or swirling flow with low friction. Still, how that flow weakens the vessel wall is unclear. This project studies how abnormal flow changes endothelial cells (ECs), the thin layer of cells lining blood vessels, and how those changes lead to fragile, unstable aneurysm walls.
Why it matters
Unruptured brain aneurysms leave patients and doctors facing a hard choice, because rupture causes severe disability and high death rates. Identifying which cell signaling pathways drive unstable aneurysm walls could support imaging-based tools that predict rupture risk more accurately. It could also reveal drug targets for preventing rupture in people with unruptured intracranial aneurysms.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Michael Levitt
University of Washington, WA·Biomedical Engineering
Run computational fluid dynamics simulations before and after treatment on a cohort of human cerebral aneurysms with known outcomes, and test which wall-based (Eulerian) and platelet-tracking (Lagrangian) measures predict success or failure.
Chen Yuan Kam
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Biology·Early-career
Track endothelial cell behaviors, such as migration within existing vessels, that prune and shape the skin vascular network in newborn mice, using longitudinal intravital imaging.
Dogukan Mizrak
University of Michigan, MI·Medicine & Clinical Research
Define the molecular triggers and downstream effects of CART signaling in human aortic smooth muscle cells in vitro, testing whether it drives wall remodeling and medial calcification, mineral buildup that stiffens the artery.
The school
University of California-Los Angeles: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 803 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.