Programming Human Vascular Organoids for Regenerative Medicine

Description

Juan Melero-Martin, Ph.D., Professor of Surgery and Endowed Chair in Cardiac Surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School will present his talk "Programming Human Vascular Organoids for Regenerative Medicine" at our monthly webinar.

 Abstract: The formation of blood vessels is essential for tissue development, regeneration, and repair. In this presentation, I will discuss how human pluripotent stem cells can be engineered to generate vascular endothelial and mural cells that self-assemble into functional vascular networks and vascular organoids. I will introduce the basic principles of vascular development, including endothelial specification, vessel morphogenesis, and vascular stabilization, and then describe how these developmental processes can be recreated in vitro using transcription factor-based approaches. The talk will highlight recent advances from our laboratory in the rapid generation of functional vascular organoids and their application to ischemic tissue repair. I will also discuss how vascular cells interact with surrounding tissues, including stem cells and immune cells, and how these interactions influence tissue regeneration and therapeutic engraftment. The goal of the presentation is to provide trainees with an overview of how developmental vascular biology and stem cell engineering can be combined to create new regenerative medicine strategies.