Meet Our Team
The Wagenseil Vascular Mechanics Laboratory focuses on the mechanical behavior of large, elastic arteries during development and disease, seeking to understand how mechanobiology and biomechanics of the large arteries contribute to normal cardiovascular function in development and abnormal function in disease.
Principal Investigator: Jessica Wagenseil
Pronouns: She/her/hersDepartment Chair and Professor , Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Utah (1 Jul 2026 - present)
— Postdoc., Washington University, Cell Biology and Physiology, 2008
— D.Sc., Washington University, Biomedical Engineering, 2003
— B.S., University of California, San Diego, Bioengineering, 1997
Jessica Wagenseil, D.Sc. runs the Vascular Mechanics Laboratory. She previously ran a laboratory in Biomedical Engineering at St. Louus University and was a postdoctoral fellow in Cell Biology and Physiology at the Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Wagenseil studies cardiovascular mechanics, specifically focusing on cardiovascular development, extracellular matrix and microstructural modeling. Her work is important for determining clinical interventions for elastin-related diseases and for designing better protocols for building tissue engineered blood vessels. Her laboratory has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Heart Association, and the Marfan Foundation. She is also the Vice Dean for Faculty Development and the Associate Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee at the McKelvey School of Engineering.
Luis Castro
Ph.D student
Luis joined the laboratory in 2024. He is using Raman microspectroscopy to identify extracellular matrix components in the aortic wall and applying machine learning to facilitate the segmentation of aortic aneurysms from clinical images for the generation of computational models.
314-935-7865
c.luis@wustl.edu
Krashn Kumar Dwivedi, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow
Krashn joined the laboratory in January 2023. He is using complementary animal and computational models for biomarker identification in ascending thoracic aneurysm
314-935-7865
krashn@wustl.edu
Garrett Easson, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow
Garret Easson joined the laboratory in June 2023. He is studying smooth muscle cell mechanobiology specifically in the context of aortic stenosis.
314-935-7865
geasson@wustl.edu
Parker Ernst
Postbaccalaureate fellow
Parker joined the laboratory in 2024 as a DCBRM postbaccalaureate fellow. He is utilizing wire myography of aortic rings and the stretching of aortic smooth muscle cells to further investigate the mechanobiology of supravalvular aortic stenosis (SVAS)
314-935-7865
ernstp@wustl.edu
Eya Ferchichi, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral fellow
Eya joined the laboratory in Sept 2025. She is utilizing biomaterials to investigate smooth muscle cell mechanobiology as it relates to aneurysms and stenosis.
314-935-7855
eya@wustl.edu
Keshav Kailash
Ph.D. student
Keshav joined the laboratory in 2022. His research focuses on determining how elastic fiber defects contribute to changes in cellular phenotype through the mechanotransduction of an altered aortic microenvironment.
314-935-8773
keshav.kailash@wustl.edu
Viola Wu
Ph.D. student
Viola joined the laboratory in 2023. Her project is dedicated to identifying mechanical biomarkers of aneurysm progression and failure in mouse models.
314-935-7865
yufanwu@wustl.edu
Join the Wagenseil Vascular Mechanics Laboratory
The laboratory welcomes anyone interested in studying vascular biomechanics and mechanobiology in development and disease, focusing on how the mechanical behavior of large, elastic arteries contributes to normal cardiovascular function and abnormal function in disease.