Ambra Pozzi, PhD, professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been elected president of the American Society for Matrix Biology (ASMB), a scientific organization that promotes research on the extracellular matrix with the aim of improving human health.
The extracellular matrix binds cells together forming a functional tissue and influences cell behavior. The matrix plays important roles in organ development and function, wound repair, angiogenesis, cancer, diabetes complications, as well as tissue fibrosis and regeneration.
Pozzi, a member the Vanderbilt University faculty since 2000, also is a professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics.
Her research has helped reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying fibrotic disease, the excessive deposition of collagens and other structural proteins in the extracellular membrane that can lead to failure of the lungs, liver, kidneys and other organs.
She and her colleagues also have identified factors involved in tumor angiogenesis, the proliferation of blood vessels that helps tumors grow, and insulin resistance, a primary risk factor for the development of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Pozzi is the second VUMC scientist to be elected president of the ASMB. Jeffrey Davidson, PhD, professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, led the organization in 2013.
Roy Zent, MD, PhD, Thomas F. Frist Sr. Professor and vice chair for Research in the Department of Medicine, is also a major contributor to the field. Recently he was appointed as one of the six editors of Matrix Biology, the field’s premier journal, which is affiliated with the ASMB.
