Under ideal conditions changes in the extracellular environment, such as occur during states of injury or disease, will induce the proper cellular response to elicit repair.
Growth factors are a major class of molecules involved in maintaining tissue homeostasis and repair.
The ability of a growth factor to regulate cell function is controlled by a complex network of physical and chemical pathways. Our goal is to understand the basic principles controlling growth factor transport through the extracellular matrix and interaction with the cell surface, so that we can generate accurate mathematical models that will form the basis of predictive computer simulations of growth factor-cell interactions.