Disruptions in prenatal brain development can lead to diseases or disabilities including epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia, and anxiety. Dr. Vasudevan’s Angiogenesis and Brain Development Laboratory, established in 2011, investigates the key events of brain development and the ways those can go wrong, with the long-term goal of ensuring early brain development remains on track. The lab uses a combination of developmental biology, genetics, cell biology, biochemistry, imaging and behavioral techniques in their research.

Dr. Vasudevan’s work has shown that prenatal blood vessel development molds brain cell development—a new insight. Blood vessel-related defects that originate during the brain’s earliest developmental stages may play a role in the development of neuropsychiatric diseases in a way never before imagined. The lab is working to better understand how, why, and when this happens.

In addition, Dr. Vasudevan and her group study embryonic brain endothelial cells (the cells that line the blood vessels) in depth. These have considerable potential for intervening in the adult brain to bring about positive outcomes for repair and regeneration of new brain cells.