Faculty Profiles
Allan R. Albig
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Washington State University
Office phone: 812-237-8553
Lab phone: 812-237-7911
E-mail: Allen.Albig@indstate.edu
Office: Science building S219
Research Interests: Vascular biology, Cancer, Angiogenesis, Extracellular Matrix.
Please see the Albig's Lab homepage for information on current projects, an updated publication list and current members of the lab.
The overall goal of my research program is to understand how molecules of the
extracellular matrix impact vascular biology.
This is a very important question since vascular abnormalities (i.e.
too many, too few, or abnormal development) are associated with at least 70
different human diseases including heart disease, and cancer which are the two
biggest killers in America. Blood
vessels are principally composed of endothelial, mural, and smooth muscle cells
and all these cell types are very sensitive to the surrounding extracellular
matrix. In fact, some of the most
potent regulators of vascular function are components of the vascular
extracellular matrix. However, our
understanding of how blood vessels are influenced by the ECM is limited by our
incomplete understanding of molecules in the vascular ECM and how these ECM
molecules impact cell biology.
Therefore, we focus our efforts not only on identifying new ECM molecules that
impact vascular biology, but also on characterizing the molecular mechanisms by
which these molecules function.
Using the information from these investigations, I intend to expand this
basic knowledge to better understand human diseases that are characterized by
insufficient or excessive angiogenesis.
We use a combination of cellular and molecular research tools combined
with animal models of angiogenesis to accomplish our research goals.
Currently, there are three main lines of investigation that address the
role of ECM in vascular biology.
Selected Publications
Lee YH, Albig AR*, Maryann R,
Schiemann BJ, Schiemann WP.
(2008)
Fibulin-5 Initiates Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and Enhances EMT
Induced by TGF-{beta} in Mammary Epithelial Cells Via a MMP-Dependent Mechanism.
Carcinogenesis.
Dec;29(12):2243-51
Albig, A.R., Roy, T.G. and Schiemann, W.P. (2007) Transcriptome analysis of endothelial cell gene expression induced by growth on Matrigel matrices: Identification and characterization of MAGP-2 and lumican as novel regulators of angiogenesis. Angiogenesis. 10, 197-216.
Albig, A.R., Neil, J.R. and Schiemann, W.P. (2006) Fibulins 3 and 5 antagonize tumor angiogenesis in vivo. Cancer Research 66, 2621-2629.
Albig AR, Schiemann WP. (2004) Identification and characterization of regulator of G protein signaling 4 (RGS4) as a novel inhibitor of tubulogenesis: RGS4 inhibits mitogen-activated protein kinases and vascular endothelial growth factor signaling. Mol Biol Cell. 16(2) 609-25 (2005).
Albig AR, Schiemann WP. (2005) Fibulin-5 function during tumorigenesis. Future Oncol. 1(1):23-35.
Albig AR, Schiemann WP. (2004) Fibulin-5 antagonizes vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling and angiogenic sprouting by endothelial cells. DNA Cell Biol. 23(6):367-79