Research Techniques

Small animal microsurgery

  • Abdominal aortic aneurysm (elastase perfusion model, elastase topical application model, calcium chloride model, angiotensin II model, BAPN rupture model)
  • Thoracic aortic aneurysm (elastase model only)
  • Aortic transplant
  • Heterotopical heart transplant (abdominal model, cervical model, re-transplant, second-graft transplant, target gene transfection)
  • Other rodent survival surgeries (e.g. orchiectomy, ovariectomy, drug pellet or device implant etc.)

Large animal surgery

  • Aortic aneurysm induction, organ or tissue transplants & other survival surgeries
Dr. Guanyi Lu and residents perform an aortic aneurysm surgery on a porcine model.
Dr. Guanyi Lu and residents perform an aortic aneurysm surgery on a porcine model.

Molecular Biology

  • Protein, RNA and DNA abstraction
  • Western blot
  • RT-PCR
  • Gelatin zymography & reverse zymography
  • Cytokine and angiogenesis array
  • ELISA
  • Elispot
  • Flow cytometry

Cell culture

  • Isolation and culture of vascular smooth muscle cell
  • Stem cell culture and application
  • Bone marrow transplantation
  • Adoptive T cell or B cell transfer

Histology

  • Tissue sample processing and slice preparations
  • Regular histology stainings (HE, Verhoeff van Gieson, Picrosirius red, Trichrome, etc.) 
  • Immunohistochemical stainings (neutrophil, macrophage,CD3⁺ T cell, α-smooth muscle cell actin)
  • Fluorescent & confocal imaging

Miscellaneous lab skills

  • Small animal ultrasound
  • Murine colony management and genotyping
  • Sample collecting (tail vein, retro-orbital, lavage)
  • Drug dosing (I.V., I.P., I.H, gavage)