Craig L. Duvall, Ph.D.

Cardiovascular procedures like bypass grafting and vessel stenting are some of the most common surgeries performed in the United States, but about half of them will require additional corrective measures, according to Craig Duvall, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair and undergraduate director of biomedical engineering. The need for follow-up procedures is often due to intimal hyperplasia, a condition where blood vessels become re-blocked by abnormal growth or migration of smooth muscle cells in the wall of the blood vessel. A team of researchers led by Duvall has developed a nanomedicine to combat this condition.

A primary cause of IH is the response to injury by the vascular smooth muscle cells that reside in the wall of the surgically manipulated blood vessel. The physical manipulation of the vascular tissue by surgeons during lifesaving procedures injures the smooth muscle cells and causes them to undergo abnormally high rates of cell division. Duvall and his colleagues in bioengineering, molecular and cellular biology and the School of Medicine found that MK2i-NP, a long-lasting inhibitor of smooth muscle cell stress response, is an effective therapeutic for IH… Continue reading.

A new biomaterial-based bone graft extender created by Vanderbilt and U.S. Army researchers has the potential to improve treatment of critical orthopedic conditions.

While a graft using a patient’s own bone – typically from the pelvis or femur – for re-implantation is considered the standard technique to repair, replace or regenerate bone tissue, limitations exist…

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… Vanderbilt team members are Craig L. Duvall, associate professor of biomedical engineering; Madison A. P. McGough and Lauren A. Boller, biomedical engineering graduate students; and Katarzyna J. Zienkiewicz, chemical and biomolecular engineering research assistant. Researchers from the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research are Joseph C. Wenke and Stefanie M. Shiels… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of Craig L. Duvall, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Recruiting, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, to its College of Fellows. Dr. Duvall was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for outstanding contributions to the fields of polymeric biomaterials and drug delivery technologies.