Dr. Elizabeth Bartolak-Suki is a Research Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering and a Senior Scientist at Boston University. Additionally, she is one of the Principal Investigators in the Cell & Tissue Mechanics Laboratory and interested in how the sensing is achieved via mechanosensitive channels and various transmembrane receptors such as integrins at focal adhesions. She is investigating at the molecular scale, how protein coupling at focal adhesions or cell-cell contacts lead to reorganization of focal adhesions as well as the cytoskeleton followed by molecular signaling cascades, turning genes on or off and eventually expressing various intra- and extracellular proteins. Moreover, these intracellular networks respond to mechanical stimuli not just at the molecular signaling scale but also as a whole at the organelle level, a new concept we introduced and study using live imaging. She developed novel techniques to manipulate and analyze cells and subcellular organelles in dynamic environments that mimic physiological rhythms in the human body. She utilized this stochastic nature of mechanical stimuli to regulate vascular smooth muscle cell contractility toward vascular tissue engineering and to develop new therapeutic strategies for alcohol related vascular malformations.