Director's Page
Welcome to the University of Miami Vascular Biology Institute web site. The Institue was established in 2001 with the primary objective of bringing together leading scientists from basic and clinical backgrounds to address some of the outstanding medical and health issues involving vascular medicine. I became director in 2004 and established the new Board of Scientific and Medical Advisors. The updated mandate for the VBI is to expand our activities and expertise in regenerative and molecular medicine and apply a direct focus on the vascular complications associated with type II diabetes. These include the cellular and molecular consequences of obesity, the impact of metabolic syndrome on vessel function, and the molecular basis of insulin resistance. Central to this overall program is the basic essence of translational; bench to bedside research. Diabetes causes vascular dysfunction at multiple levels that ultimately can lead to heart and/or kidney failure and stroke. Obesity and type II diabetes are already at epidemic proportions in our society so research must concentrate on developing new patient treatments as well as preventative strategies. To this end the Institute has developed unique techniques for engineering stem cells with therapeutic genes that can be used to replace diseased or damaged vessels in patients with diabetes-related conditions including ischemia of the limbs, heart, lung, and kidney. We are also developing parallel strategies for delivering anti-angiogenesis genes to prevent neovascularization in tumors, and in the eyes of patients with retinopathy. This is just one example of how innovative biotechnology has been translated to clinical reality through the combined input of our basic and clinical researchers.
The Vascular Biology Institute has strong links with the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Pharmacology, and Bioengineering as well as with the Diabetes Research Institute and the Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami. The Institute is currently in a mode of expansion and we welcome inquiries from scientist at all levels with interests in our programs. Most of the individual investigators are also expanding and recruiting and inquiries to individual PI's are also very welcome.
I look forward to the challenge of building the Miami VBI into a success story that equals that of the Diabetes Research Institute and the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, two of our most recent examples of world-recognized centers of excellence in the medical school.
Keith A. Webster, Ph.D.
e-mail: kwebster@med.miami.edu