Jong Park, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Weinstein laboratory, and Julian A. Rey, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Basser laboratory, each received a 2023 NIGMS Postdoctoral Research Associate Training (PRAT) Program fellowship award.
The PRAT Program is a competitive three-year Fi2 fellowship (i stands for intramural) available to NIH fellows in their first two years of postdoctoral studies. In addition to stipends and travel allowances, the program provides professional development activities and relevant skills training sessions. More information about the program can be found on the PRAT Program website.
Please join the NICHD community in congratulating Dr. Park and Dr. Rey on receiving this prestigious award. More information about their research projects can be found below.
Jong Park, PhD
Fun fact: “I enjoy playing jazz saxophone.”
A zebrafish gill model of mammalian lung endothelium
Endothelial cells (EC) in the lung play an important role in gas exchange, hormone regulation, and immune responses, and EC dysregulation is associated with pulmonary vascular diseases. A recent mouse study identified a novel EC called the “aerocyte” that likely plays a critical role in gas exchange. However, its developmental origins and true functions are unknown due to difficulties in observing and manipulating these cells in mammals.
In preliminary scRNAseq studies, we identified putative zebrafish aerocytes (zAerocytes) in adult zebrafish gills, and we propose to characterize the morphology, developmental origins, and functions of zAerocytes in the experimentally accessible zebrafish gill endothelium, establishing a comparative vertebrate model for mammalian lung endothelium with an eye toward therapeutic discoveries for pulmonary vascular diseases.
Julian A. Rey, PhD
Fun fact: “As a Cuban American from Miami, Florida, I grew up in heat, humidity, and traffic there, but I still love and miss morning jogs on the beach and mamey milkshakes.”
Multiscale brain tissue finite element mechanical modeling to infer brain microstructural properties from magnetic resonance elastography
There is growing evidence that the mechanical rigidity of the brain reflects both healthy and pathological changes in its structure and function. Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) is a promising MRI technique to estimate brain rigidity noninvasively. However, the relationship between gross tissue rigidity and the mechanical properties of the brain’s microstructural and fluid components is not well understood, limiting the biological insights that we can glean from MRE data.
We will develop computational mechanical models to investigate the contribution of both microstructural and fluid components to the aggregate mechanical properties estimated from MRE, and to predict internal forces among these components arising from bulk tissue motion. The long-term goal is to apply this computational modeling framework to infer mechanical properties of the brain’s microstructural and fluid components noninvasively, thereby detecting changes in mechanical properties that may accompany brain development, disease, and therapeutic interventions.