Profile

The CENTRAL research goal of Dr. Al-Hilal’s lab is to understand the differences between physiological and pathological cues that drives the progression of a vascular and cancer diseases. Because of the complexity of the interacting pathways and three-dimensional nature of a developing vs diseased tissues, this problem would require an interdisciplinary approach, combining expertise from the pharmaceutical, biological and engineering disciplines. Thus, utilizing novel on-chip, stiffness-patterned bioengineering, and transgenic animal models that closely mimic the human diseases, Dr. Al-Hilal and his group is discovering new molecular markers and studying their role in disease progression. Current projects are focusing to understand: 1) Role of a prion-like protein Doppel in tumor microenvironment and progression; 2) Role of tumor-coagulome in immunosuppression; 3) Cancer disparity and heterogeneity; and 4) Cell-specific Durotaxis (cells movement up against stiffness gradient) in lung diseases.