Professor and Department Chair, Biomedical Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Education:
Ph.D., Medical Engineering, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1991
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 1987
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela, 1984

Career Highlights:
After completing her doctoral degree, DePaola conducted post-doctorate work at Columbia University in the Artificial Organs Research Laboratory; she concurrently served as an adjunct assistant professor of chemical engineering. DePaola spent the following year at Northwestern University as an assistant professor of biomedical engineering. She joined Rensselaer’s biomedical engineering faculty in 1994, and was promoted to associate professor in 1999.

A member of the Institute for Medicine and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, DePaola also holds an appointment as an adjunct associate professor in the Center for Cardiovascular Sciences at the Albany Medical College. Her experience also includes six months as a senior scientist in the Laboratory for Structural Biology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2000.

DePaola received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award in 1996, was a member of the U.S. delegation to the 5th Japan-USA-Singapore-China Conference in Biomechanics in 1998, and is a Frontiers Alumna (1997) of the National Academy of Engineering. DePaola has served as Rensselaer’s faculty advisor to the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) student chapter since 1996.

Research Areas:
DePaola’s work focuses on biofluid dynamics, cell mechanics, and cell and tissue engineering. Her laboratory investigates the fundamental aspects of fluid mechanics and mass transport that are involved in the modulation of mammalian cell function. She is concentrating particularly on cells in the arterial circulation and on identification of the mechanistic links between hemodynamics and vascular biology.

A main objective of DePaola’s research is to develop experimental and mathematical models in relations to the flow characteristic. These models describe the dynamics of cell behavior and cell interactions occurring at the arterial surface in early atherosclerosis. Her focus is on identifying cellular and molecular mechanisms by which specific flow parameters regulate endothelial function and contribute to localized vessel wall remodeling and the development of atherosclerotic lesions.

Her studies combine mammalian cell models, experimental fluid dynamics, and biochemical/molecular techniques. She is obtaining detailed characterization of the cell mechanical environment by using experimental, analytical, and numerical simulation techniques. Her research approach is unique in that the biological emphasis is in cell dysfunction and that the fluid dynamics (and convective mass transport) emphasis is in the complex flows found at atherogenesis-prone sites of the human vasculature.

Most recent research activities include the growth and differentiation of 3D bone cell constructs towards the engineering of new functional tissue, microgravity research, and cell bioreactor design for tissue engineering.

DePaola’s ongoing research collaborations are with the University of Pennsylvania; Johns Hopkins Medical School; the Center for Cardiovascular Sciences at Albany Medical College; the Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany; McGill University, and Applied BioPhysics, Inc.

Selected Publications:
N. DePaola, M.A. Gimbrone Jr., P.F. Davies, and C.F. Dewey Jr., "Vascular Endothelium Responds to Fluid Shear Stress Gradients," Arteriosclerosis and Thrombosis, 12, 1254-1257, (1992).

C. LeDuc, N. DePaola, S.L. Konath, L. Vroman, and E.F. Leonard, "Adsorption of Proteins out of Plasma onto Glass from a Separated Flow," Journal of Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition, 6, (7), 599-608, (1994).

P.F. Davies, K.A. Barbee, M.V. Volin, A. Robotewskyj, J. Chen, L. Joshep, M.L. Griem, M.N. Wernick, E. Jacobs, D.C. Polacek, N. DePaola, and A.I. Barakat, “Spatial Relationships in Early Signaling Events of Low-Mediated Endothelial Mechanotransduction," Annual Review of Physiology, 59, 527-549, (1997).

P.F. Davies, N. DePaola, and D.C. Polacek, "Hemodynamic Forces and Vascular Cell Communication," Atherosclerosis, XI, 943-948, (1998).

N. DePaola, P.F. Davies, W.F. Pritchard, L. Florez, N. Harbeck, and D.C. Polacek, "Spatial and Temporal Regulation of Gap Junction Connexin 43 in Vascular Endothelial Cells Exposed to Controlled Disturbed Flows In Vitro," Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 96, (6), 3154-3159, (1999).

P.F. Davies, D.C. Polaceck, J.F. Handen, B.P. Helmke, and N. DePaola, "Mechanotransduction and the Focal Origin of Atherosclerosis: A Spatial Approach to Gene Expression Profiling," invited, Trends in Biotechnology, 17, 347-351, (1999).

J.E. Phelps and N. DePaola, "Spatial Variation in Endothelial Barrier Function in Disturbed Flows In Vitro," American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 278, H469-H476, (2000).

N. DePaola, J.E. Phelps, L. Florez, C.R. Keese, F.L. Minnear, I. Giaever, and P. Vincent, "Electrical Impedance of Culture Endothelium under Fluid Flow," Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 29, 648-659, (2001).

P.F. Davies, C. Shi, N. DePaola, B.P. Helmke, and D.C. Polacek, “Hemodynamics and the Focal Origin of Atherosclerosis: A Spatial Approach to Endothelial Structure, Gene Expression, and Function," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 947, 7-17, (2001).

K.G. Birukov, A.A. Birukova, S. Dudek, M. Crow, X. Zhan, N. DePaola, and J.G.N. Garcia, "Shear Stress-Mediated Cytoskeletal Remodeling and Cortactin Translocation In Pulmonary Endothelial Cells," American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, 26, (4), 453-464, (2002).

K. Haberstroh, M. Kaefer, N. DePaola, and R. Bizios, "A Novel In Vitro System for the Simultaneous Exposure of Bladder Smooth Muscle Cells to Mechanical Strain and Sustained Hydrostatic Pressure," Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 124, 208-213, (2002).

Contact Information:
Natacha DePaola
(518) 276-2170
depaola@rpi.edu
http://www.bme.rpi.edu/faculty/depaola.htm