Nathaniel G. dela Paz, PhD

Profile

Dr. Nathaniel G. dela Paz received his B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Genetics at the University of California, Berkeley.  After spending three years as a Research Technician at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, he decided that his time at the bench should be spent towards earning a graduate degree.  In 2005, he completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, where he studied the transcriptional regulation of the adhesion molecules, E-selectin and VCAM-1, by using a single cell-based nuclear microinjection technique.  His expertise in this particular method led to his recruitment to the postdoctoral training program in the Department of Pathology at Children’s Hospital Boston by the late Dr. Tucker Collins.  During his time in Dr. Collins’ laboratory, he investigated the control mechanisms by which the early growth response factor (Egr-1) regulates gene expression in the vessel wall.  Currently in his third year of postdoctoral training in the area of vascular biology, Dr. dela Paz has joined the laboratory of Dr. Patricia A. D’Amore at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, where he has begun to investigate the role of VEGF in the adult vasculature.  He is specifically interested in examining the effects of shear stress on VEGF isoform expression and how it may play a role in cell survival and the stabilization of mature blood vessels.