ReachMD

Dr. Edward Damiano is an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University. His educational training is in the areas of biomedical and mechanical engineering, applied mechanics, and applied mathematics. His research group is engaged in basic scientific research that combines fluid dynamics with intravital microscopy to study blood flow in the microcirculation and to elucidate mechanisms by which the lining of blood vessels determines vascular health and disease. 

In particular, Dr. Damiano's lab has been focusing on the endothelial glycocalyx, which forms a complex hydrated mesh of cell surface macromolecules that is situated at the interface between the luminal vascular wall and flowing blood. His group has developed new analytical and experimental tools to interrogate the glycocalyx in vivo and in vitro. They have demonstrated that this layer of macromolecules extends ~500 nm from the wall of healthy blood vessels, but is significantly degraded in the presence of vascular inflammation and chronic hyperglycemia. His group is also testing therapeutic interventions aimed at preventing and counteracting the damage to the glycocalyx, which may underlie vascular pathologies such as atherosclerosis and microvascular complications associated  with diabetes.

In addition to this research, Dr. Damiano is also personally committed to creating and integrating closed-loop control technologies for automatically regulating blood glucose in diabetes. After testing and qualifying his group's blood-glucose control algorithms in diabetic swine, their system became the first academically sponsored investigational device to receive FDA approval for testing in subjects with type 1 diabetes. Their first-phase clinical trial testing their device was recently completed at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Their second-phase clinical trial began in July 2010 in children and adults with type 1 diabetes.