2026-07-10 — New site launched — Our new website is live on GitHub Pages. It was time for a refresh!
Adam Lab
Our Mission
Our Mission is to find novel therapeutics to treat tissue damage and organ dysfunction caused by disproportionate inflammatory responses. We aim to achieve that by identifying the most critical mechanisms of the pathophysiology that lead to chronic and excessive inflammation.
When inflammation goes awry
A cytokine-driven acute increase in vascular permeability is an essential feature of the inflammatory response leading to tissue repair and pathogen clearance. However, sustained vascular leakage due to prolonged or exacerbated inflammation leads to organ damage, lasting sequelae and increased mortality. The mechanism mediating the acute (minutes to hours) responses to proinflammatory cytokine signaling are well-described: phosphorylation of tyrosines in adherens junction proteins and an increase in actin-myosin contractility are two main mechanisms leading to a quick loss of endothelial intercellular adhesion and thus an increase in vascular permeability. Despite its importance in severe and chronic inflammation, little is known about the changes in the endothelium causing a sustained (lasting hours to days) vascular barrier breakdown. Understanding these long-term mechanisms may prove crucial to allow us to directly target vascular leakage and minimize tissue damage, thus reducing the rates of mortality and chronic sequelae of excessive edema.
Lab news
2026-07-1 — Congrats Mitchell! — Our collaborative work to identify blood makers for necrotizing fascitis is now in press at Ophthalmic Plast Reconstr Surg.
2026-05 — New funding from NHLBI! — Gabby Fredman and I just received our NOA for our MPI R01! We'll be hiring!
2026-05 — Congrats Annette! — Her paper on p120 expression in rosacea is now available at Exp Eye Res.
2025-12-1 — Ramon's first senior author paper! — His work on epigenetic mechanisms of endothelial memory is now published at AJP-Cell!
2025-10-01 — New funding from the Bryant Trust — We are excited to share that the Bryant Trust will support some of our work on retinopathies!
2025-09-16 — Our latest research in now live in JCI — A tour-de-force led by Nina. Read it here. Many thanks to our collaborators Pilar and Erin!
2025-04-02 — Congratulations Dr Lu! — Shuhan successfully defended her PhD Thesis! Congratulations!
2024-09-01 — New NIGMS R35 award — We are happy to announce our new NIGMS R35 award!
2024-07-01 — Shuhan's paper was published — Shuhan's paper was published in Neuroscience!
2024-06-01 — AHA CDA award — Congratulations to Ramon on the AHA CDA award.
2024-01-01 — Rosacea Phase I trial published — Our Phase I trial showing safety of topical trametinib for rosacea was published!
2023-09 — What a month for Ramon! — So proud of Ramon! He just published his work on endothelial epigenetic response to shock, was promoted to assistant professor, and started a bioinformatics core!
2022-08 — New paper at AJP-Cell — Nina is on roll! She just published her data showing an autocrine IL-6 signaling loop in endothelial cells. Read it here!
2021-12-20 — Congrats Shuhan! — Shuhan was awarded an AHA predoc fellowship!
2021-07 — New paper at JCI Insight — Congrats Nina for your first author publication showing the crucial roles for endothelial SOCS3!
2020-06 — Welcome Shuhan! — Shuhan Lu is our new PhD student! Welcome!
2020-05 — New instrument supplemment award — Busy month! Thank you NIGMS for supporting the purchase of a Heidelberg Spectralis HRA+OCT2 for our critical illness models!
2020-05 — First insights from our COVID19 patients — First data from very sick COVID19 patients show that very high CCL19 is associated with poor outcome. Read the preprint
2019-05 — Congrats Kevin! — Kevin Lau was awarded the 2019 AΩA Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship!
2019-03-15 — Congratulations Dr Hiba Alsaffar! — Hiba successfully dedended her Thesis and she is now officially Dr Alsaffar!
Research
The Adam Lab studies endothelial responses to inflammatory stress with molecular, cellular, animal, translational, and computational approaches.
Multiorgan injury
Deciphering the many transcriptional and post-transcriptional endothelial changes driving organ injury during shock.
Atherosclerosis
Understanding how the endothelium regulates progression and stability, with the goal of achieving regression.
Rosacea
Inflammation-linked vascular changes in skin and periocular tissues.
Retinopathies
Inflammatory signaling in ocular vascular beds and translational strategies to preserve vision.
Endothelial junctions
Elucidating the mechanisms by which endothelial cells lose their ability to form strong barriers in response to inflammatory stress.
Angiogenesis
Pro- and anti-angiogenic signaling in inflammatory and reparative tissue environments.
Funding sources
We are grateful for our current and past funding from:
