María Virumbrales-Muñoz, PhD

Research Interests

My laboratory does biology research in engineered tissues, at the interface of cell biology and engineering. My laboratory uses these techniques to investigate the role of the microenvironment in disease progression. Specifically, we leverage bottom-up tissue engineering strategies (including microphysiological systems) to recapitulate vascularized environments in disease states, and the role of microenvironmental cues (e.g., 3D architecture, cellular crosstalk, extracellular environment) in diseased tissue, including its vascular function. These environmental cues are known to have a dramatic impact on cellular behavior and drug response, and thus we can test the effects of different pharmaceuticals in a more physiologically relevant environment.

Selected Publications

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=virumbrales-mu%C3%B1oz