Julia J. Mack, Ph.D.

  • Associate Professor, Cardiology
JMack@mednet.ucla.edu
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UCLA scientist Julia Mack smiles for a headshot.

Julia J. Mack, Ph.D., investigates how mechanical forces influence vascular cell signaling and blood vessel function. Her research focuses on understanding how endothelial cells sense, respond and adapt to their physical environment, with the goal of harnessing these mechanisms to promote cardiovascular health.

As a materials scientist-turned-biologist, Mack studies the mechanobiology of endothelial cell signaling. She is interested in understanding how these important vascular cells both sense and respond to their physical environment and how forces generated by blood flow promote cardiovascular health. Using both in vitro and in vivo models, she is uncovering how these forces regulate both individual cell responses and collective tissue function.

To visualize differences in how cells respond, Mack utilizes high-resolution imaging techniques to study subcellular organelle organization as well as the spatiotemporal dynamics of signaling activity, with a particular focus on calcium signaling. She also uses zebrafish and mouse models to investigate the role of mechanosensitive signaling in vascular health, with the goal of identifying specific pathways and signaling mechanisms to promote vascular resilience.

  • Defining how populations of endothelial cells respond differently to changes in blood flow using live-cell imaging, single-cell transcriptomics and subcellular proteomics
  • Identifying how mechanosensitive signaling is regulated within subcellular compartments and across an interconnected network of cells
  • Understanding how blood flow affects cellular lipid composition and, in turn, membrane protein distribution and receptor activation
  • Defining mechanosensitive signaling behaviors that promote vascular resilience