Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Aortic aneurysm is the leading cause of death in individuals with Marfan Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that affects about 1 in 5000 individuals. Although the altered protein that causes Marfan Syndrome is widely expressed and although the signaling cascades that ultimately yield aortic aneurysms are active throughout the vascular system, aneurysms develop at distinctly non-random locations. Cells of different developmental origins appear to respond differently to a proliferative stimulus, and the non-random distribution of aneurysm may reflect the anatomical locations where cells of these different origins convergence. My research further suggests that a small sugar-like modification to proteins is involved in the proliferative response of proteins within these cells, and this modification may be cell lineage-specific.