Joseph M. Rutkowski, PhD

Education and Training

• Penn State University, BS, Chemical Engineering, 2001
• Northwestern University, MS, Chemical Engineering, 2003
• École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, PhD, Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 2008
• University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2012

Research Interests

• As a modulator of interstitial flow and molecular transport, lymphatic circulation governs tissue homeostasis. Rutkowski utilizes lymphatic physiology in two different ways: first, addressing how lymphatic circulation and interstitial flux change in pathological states and during manipulations to the encompassing cell biology of a given vascularized tissue; second, employing genetic manipulations of lymphatic endothelial cell biology to quantify effects not only in lymphatic function, but to the tissue's pathology as a whole. The research approach incorporates a vast array of tools from protein analysis and lipidomics to tissue engineering and transgenic mouse model generation.
• Current ongoing projects are mostly focused on the Lymphatic Physiology of Metabolic Systems. The lab utilizes an extensive toolkit of genetic mouse models and physiologically relevant in vitro systems to identify how changes in lymphatic biology impact metabolite transport and whole animal metabolism.
• Other projects use the toolkit in identifying factors driving the pathology of lymphatic diseases such as generalized lymphatic anomalies (GLA) and lymphedema. Additional collaborative efforts employ the models in renal and pulmonary health.