Charlotte Buckley

The endothelium is a sophisticated coordination centre that control’s a wide range of vascular functions, including blood pressure regulation and blood flow via changes in vascular contractility. To coordinate vascular function, cell communication and interactions are required for tissue level responses to emerge. Ca²⁺ propagation between cells (Ca²⁺ waves) is widely considered the driving force of this signal propagation, either via diffusion through gap junctions, an extracellular factor or electrical coupling. To study this, I use state of the art microscopy for Ca²⁺ imaging in live tissue preparations and primary cells. Using a combination of localised and local drug application, as well as specific light-activated intravital dyes to manipulate Ca²⁺ activity, and use home-built and standard image analysis quantification techniques. My research will also involved probing this fundamentally important signalling system using transgenic zebrafish lines and light sheet imaging.