Anne Eichmann, PhD

Anne Eichmann has been at Yale School of Medicine since 2010, where she now is Ensign Professor of Medicine and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology and a Co-Director of the Yale Cardiovascular Research Center. She obtained her M.Sc. at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, in 1989 and her Ph.D. In Molecular and Cell Biology at the Université Paris XIII in 1994.

She most recently was awarded the Earl P. Benditt Award by NAVBO in 2025 in recognition of her many contributions to the understanding of vascular and lymphatic signaling in development and alterations of this signaling in diseases associated with malfunctioning vessels.

Her work includes showing that in blood vessels, specialized endothelial cells, called tip cells, located at the extremities of growing capillary sprouts mediate guided vascular patterning. Tip cells exhibit characteristic features, including filopodial extensions, lack of a lumen, and a slow proliferation rate. Following behind tip cells, other endothelial cells, termed stalk cells, form the capillary lumen and proliferate. Tip cell selection is induced by VEGF signaling through VEGFR2 and is suppressed in stalk cells by Delta- Notch and BMP9-Alk1 signaling. Her lab has identified several key molecules regulating capillary guidance, including UNC5B, a receptor for Netrin1 and Robo4 and Slit2 signaling through Robo1 and 2. Molecules regulating capillary patterning and guidance in development also operate during pathological angiogenesis and regulate vascular maturation, therefore they represent targets for promoting or inhibiting conditions associated with aberrant vessel growth and permeability.

The Eichmann Laboratory has also studied flow-mediated arterial maturation and arterio-venous malformations (AVMs). They have generated mouse models for a human genetic disorder hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) and revealed novel pathways involved in AVM formation in mice that can be targeted to prevent HHT in patients.

Anne is currently working in collaboration with Professor Natalie Trevaskis at Monash University to pioneer a new, non-invasive approach to treating stroke by boosting the brain’s lymphatic network, funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).