Speaker: Mark Rakobowchuk, Ph.D., Thompson Rivers University
Speaker Biography
Dr. Rakobowchuk is an Associate Professor at Thompson Rivers University where he leads the Extracellular Vesicles and Endothelial Dynamics Laboratory. After completing graduate degrees (MSc and PhD) at McMaster University, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Research Centre at the University of Leeds, UK where he studied putative endothelial progenitor cell dynamics. Then after a couple years that Brunel University London, he found his way to Kamloops where he leads the Extracellular Vesicles and Endothelial Dynamics Laboratory. At this newly established laboratory, his team of mainly undergraduate students examine the role of extracellular vesicles in adaptations of the vasculature to various physiological manipulations. They aim to identify novel mechanisms of action and determine the factors that regulate dynamics of these circulating factors. More specifically, Dr. Rakobowchuk focuses on the most abundant and dynamic of the extracellular vesicles, those derived from platelets. In this talk, Dr. Rakobowchuk will discuss the dynamics, stimuli, and downstream effects that these singling constructs have on cells that line blood vessels. He will also examine the role of these vesicles glucoregulatory abnormalities that may lead to disease.