Valuable work with blood vessels 

Kayla Bayless received her Tabor award at the Matrix Metalloproteinases Gordon Research Conference in August in Smithfield, R.I. It was attended by JBC Associate Editor Judith Bond.

Kayla Bayless, an assistant professor in the department of molecular and cellular medicine at the Texas A&M Health Science Center, was named the recipient of a Journal of Biological Chemistry/Herbert Tabor Young Investigator Award for her work toward better understanding how biochemical and mechanical signals regulate new blood-vessel growth.

“We manipulate gene expression in endothelial cells and test the outcome in three-dimensional models of human endothelial cell sprouting,” Bayless says. “This approach is complemented by biochemical assays, proteomics and microscopy to hone in on the function of a particular protein or a complex of proteins.”

Bayless, a Texan, earned her B.S. in molecular biology in 1994 at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin and her Ph.D. in medical physiology in 1999 at the Texas A&M University College of Medicine in College Station, where she worked with Gerald Meininger and George Davis. She completed postdoctoral training in the TAMHSC’s pathology department with Davis.