Angiogenesis Research Laboratory

     Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels form and develop from existing vessels. In this process, endothelial cells in the vessel wall are activated, migrate and form new vessels. After playing a vital role during embryonic development, angiogenesis stops in adulthood and becomes active only in certain physiological or pathological conditions, such as the menstrual cycle, placenta formation, inflammation, wound healing, tumor development and vascular malformations.

     The Angiogenesis Research Laboratory conducts research on understanding the molecular mechanism of angiogenesis and determining the angiogenic characteristics of different tumor and vascular tissues. The rat corneal angiogenesis model, used to study angiogenic activity, is a method routinely applied in our laboratory to dynamically observe angiogenic activity. The corneal angiogenesis model is a dynamic model in which the efficacy of many anti-angiogenic molecules used in cancer treatment is tested, and it therefore holds an important place in cancer treatment research. In addition to this model, many target molecules, pathways and mechanisms related to angiogenesis and vasculogenesis are studied in our laboratory using real-time PCR, western blot, histochemistry, ELISA and advanced proteomic techniques. In this context, our laboratory has the technical infrastructure and experience to carry out projects on the importance of angiogenesis in cancer and the testing of angiogenesis-targeted molecules in cancer treatment.