Meet the PI
W. David Merryman, PhD
- Walters Family Professor
- Professor of Biomedical Engineering
- Professor of Pharmacology
- Professor of Medicine
- Professor of Pediatrics
- Associate Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering
David Merryman is a Walters Family Professor and Associate Chair for the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He completed his PhD in bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. His background and experience is in cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal biomechanics and mechanobiology.
The Merryman Laboratory is physically located in the pediatric cardiology space of Medical Research Building IV within Vanderbilt University Medical Center, surrounded by developmental and basic science cardiovascular and pulmonology laboratories. His lab is made up of biomedical engineering trainees, which gives it a unique perspective and diverse expertise for approaching disease and therapeutic options. Specifically, his research focus is examining the role of mechanical forces in altering cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal cell function at the gene, phenotype, and protein levels, with particular focus on the serotonin 2B receptor and cadherin-11. Moreover, his research combines traditional mechanical engineering approaches with novel biomolecular techniques to develop innovative strategies for treating or preventing cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal disease. Specific examples of this are the development of a percutaneous catheter device to treat myxomatous mitral valve disease, development of a specific serotonin antagonist for prevention of pulmonary arterial hypertension, and new strategies to target cadherin-11 in a variety of cardiovascular pathologies. Pedagogically, he mentors trainees to take a multidisciplinary approach in addressing clinically relevant mechano-potential etiologies of cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal disease and further guide them in the development of innovative strategies to prevent or treat these pathologies.