Alison Vander Roest

Dr. Alison Vander Roest is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on cardiac mechanobiology, investigating how mechanical forces influence cardiac cell behavior and disease progression in pediatric development and adult conditions. She leads the Cardiac Mechanobiology Lab, which combines human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived in vitro systems with computational modeling to study disease mechanisms and develop precision medicine approaches.

Dr. Vander Roest's research areas include biomechanics, biomedical computation, cardiovascular biology, molecular biomechanics, and regenerative medicine. Her lab's work emphasizes understanding the molecular basis of cardiac contraction, particularly through studying gene-edited hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes and computational models. Key projects involve analyzing how genetic mutations (e.g., MYH7 G256E) impact contractility, mitochondrial function, and hypertrophic signaling pathways.

Her recent work highlights the role of YAP dysregulation in hypertrophy, the effects of mechanical stress on transcriptomic shifts, and the development of tools like the CONTRAX pipeline for tracking cardiomyocyte contractility. These studies bridge basic science and translational medicine, aiming to advance therapies for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and other cardiac disorders.

Dr. Vander Roest is affiliated with the Lurie Biomedical Engineering building and collaborates across disciplines to integrate mechanobiological insights with clinical applications. While no awards or grants are explicitly listed, her lab's innovative approaches reflect a focus on cutting-edge biomedical engineering and cardiology research.