Vivian Nguyen

Research:  My research focuses on understanding the role of the oxygen-dependent metabolic response in stabilizing blood vessels in the microvasculature. We do this by modeling two vessels in parallel as a system of nonlinear differential equations and using a Green's function numerical approach to precisely simulate the spatial distribution of oxygen across vessels.The goal of my project is to define the threshold parameters that vessels begin to compete in order to eliminate redundant vessels. Mathematically modeling the structural adaptation of the tissue vasculature facilitates a better understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in angiogenesis during both developmental and diseased states.