Eno E. Ebong

About

Joined Northeastern University in Fall 2013.

Directs the “Ebong Mechanobiology Laboratory”, where research currently focuses on studying how the mechanical forces of blood flow and tissue stiffness affect endothelial cells, which line the blood vessels and guard them from dysfunction that leads to diseases like atherosclerosis, cancer metastasis, and neurodegeneration. Much of the research focus is on studying the structure and function of the protective gel-like layer of sugar molecules and proteins coating the surface of the endothelial cells—called the glycocalyx—to understand, on a molecular level, how mechanobiology remodels the endothelial cells to facilitate protection from disease. This glycocalyx structure gives endothelial cells the resilience they need to withstand the raucous mechanical environment that they are subjected to, especially due to dynamic blood flows at the vessel branch points. Glycocalyx sheds in the presence of disease, so it is of great interest to study how gradual glycocalyx degradation initiates and promotes pathology. The “Ebong Mechanobiology Laboratory” constructs in vitro fluid-solid systems comprised of endothelial cells co-cultured with support cells, to replicate both healthy and disruptive conditions and to uncover the intricacies of the mechanics-glycocalyx-endothelial cell relationship. This work is combined with live animal studies to assess the validity of the findings, in real disease conditions. Other approaches include biomaterials, state-of-the-art electron microscopy (mainly rapid freezing/freeze substitution preservation and transmission electron microscopy), advanced biological imaging of cells and animals, RNA interference techniques, fluorescent intracellular biomarkers, protein biochemistry, and more. Our discoveries are being applied to the development of therapies and nanomedicine-based drug delivery tools that target mechanobiology, endothelial cells, and the glycocalyx to prevent and/or reverse disease.

Selected Publications

• Xu, Suowen, Ilyas, Iqra, Little, Peter J., Li, Hong, Kamato, Danielle, Zheng, Xueying, Luo, Sihui, Li, Zhuoming, Liu, Peiqing, Han, Jihong, Harding, Ian C., Ebong, Eno E., Cameron, Scott J., Stewart, Alastair G., Weng, Jianping. (2021). Endothelial Dysfunction in Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Diseases and Beyond: From Mechanism to Pharmacotherapies. Pharmacological Reviews. 73(3):924-967. 10.1124/pharmrev.120.000096
• Nian, Keqing, Harding, Ian C., Herman, Ira M., Ebong, Eno E. (2021). Blood-Brain Barrier Damage in Ischemic Stroke and Its Regulation by Endothelial Mechanotransduction. Frontiers in Physiology, 1:605398. 10.3389/fphys.2020.605398
• Nian, Keqing, Harding, Ian C., Herman, Ira M., Ebong, Eno E. (2021). Blood-Brain Barrier Damage in Ischemic Stroke and Its Regulation by Endothelial Mechanotransduction. Frontiers in Physiology, 1:605398. 10.3389/fphys.2020.605398
• Mensah, Solomon A., Nersesyan, Alina, Harding, Ian C., Lee, Claire I., Tan, Xuefei, Banerjee, Selina, Niedre, Mark J.,Torchilin, Vladimir P., Ebong, Eno E. (2020). Flow-Regulated Endothelial Glycocalyx Determines Metastatic Cancer Cell Activity. FASEB Journal: official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. 34(5): 6166-6184. 10.1096/fj.201901920R
• Cheng, Ming J., Mitra, Ronodeep, Okorafor, Chinedu C., Nersesyan, Alina A., Harding, Ian C., Bal, Nandita N., Kumar, Rajiv, Sridhar, Srinivaas, Ebong, Eno E. (2020). Targeted Intravenous Nanoparticle Delivery: Role of Flow and Endothelial Glycocalyx Integrity. Annals Biomedical Engineering. 48(7): 1941-1954. 10.1007/s10439-020-02474-4
• Cai, Xuezhu, Qiao, Ju, Kulkarni, Praveen, Harding, Ian C., Ebong, Eno, Ferris, Craig F. (2020). Imaging the effect of the circadian light-dark cycle on the glymphatic system in awake rats. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 117 (1): 668-676. 10.1073/pnas.1914017117

Faculty

Sep 28, 2023

Spark Fund Award Research to Address Atherosclerosis

ChE/BioE Associate Professor Eno Ebong is using the Spark Funds she received earlier this year to develop a novel therapeutic that targets the glycocalyx to prevent atherosclerosis, a cardiovascular disease that can lead to secondary cardiovascular events such as strokes or heart attacks.

Faculty

Jul 20, 2023

Fall 2023 Spark Fund Awardees

MIE Associate Professor Randal Erb, ChE/BioE Associate Professor Eno Ebong, ChE Professor Rebecca Carrier, and MIE Associate Professor Yi Zheng are recipients of the Fall 2023 Spark Fund Awards.

Faculty

Dec 13, 2021

I&EC Research’s 2021 Class of Influential Researchers

ChE/BioE Associate Professor Eno Ebong, ChE Assistant Professor Sidi Bencherif, and ChE Associate Professor Richard West were featured on the cover of I&EC Research as 3 of 36 scientists recognized as the 2021 Class of Influential Researchers.

Alumni

May 04, 2021

It Started with a Mentor

After earning his bachelor’s degree at City College of New York, Solomon Mensah, PhD’19, bioengineering, chose to further his education at Northeastern for its entrepreneurial atmosphere, and to study under his undergraduate mentor who joined Northeastern, Associate Professor Eno Ebong, chemical engineering and bioengineering. Mensah’s graduate research, supervised by Ebong, examined inter-cellular interactions in cancer […]

Faculty

Jun 23, 2020

Ebong Selected to Attend US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium

ChE/BioE Associate Professor Eno Ebong was invited to represent Northeastern at the National Academy of Engineering’s US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, February 25-26, 2021. Ebong was among eighty-five of the nation’s brightest early-career engineers selected to take part in the National Academy of Engineering’s (NAE) 26th annual US Frontiers of Engineering (USFOE) symposium. The symposium covers […]

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