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Vascular Morphogenesis Lab
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A lab that uses zebrafish to explore how blood vessels take shape.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring how blood vessels take shape, starting from endothelial cells.
The lab studies how blood vessels are formed and maintained during development and afterward.
Using zebrafish embryos, it examines how the shape and movement of endothelial cells are regulated, with methods such as high-resolution time-lapse imaging.
It also focuses on how forces generated by blood flow affect endothelial cell behavior and blood vessel shape.
The research is conducted at the RIKEN Kobe Campus, and the lab is introduced at Osaka University as a lab of the Department of Biological Sciences.
Key terms
- Endothelial cells
- Cells that line the inside of blood vessels. When vessels form, they change their shape and movement and take part in shaping the vessel.
- Angiogenesis
- The process in which new vessel sprouts emerge from existing blood vessels and branch.
- Zebrafish
- The model organism used by this lab. It is said to be well suited to high-resolution live imaging and genetic analysis.
- Actin
- A fibrous protein that makes up the cell's skeleton (cytoskeleton). It is involved in changing the shape of the cell membrane and determining cell shape.
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to understand how blood vessels are formed and maintained, starting from the shape and movement of endothelial cells. Using zebrafish, it investigates how the cell's cytoskeleton and the forces of blood flow determine endothelial cell behavior during angiogenesis.
*Illustrative imageHow endothelial cells change shape
The lab investigates how endothelial cells change shape during angiogenesis, focusing on how actin, the cell's cytoskeleton, regulates the movement of the cell membrane. It also plans to examine where and when forces arise within the cell.
*Illustrative imageBlood flow forces and endothelial cell behavior
Once a blood vessel becomes a tube, endothelial cells experience forces such as shear stress from blood flow and blood pressure. The lab investigates how endothelial cells sense and respond to changes in these forces, and how the cell surface is regulated to maintain the shape of the vessel.
*Illustrative imageHow the inner space of a blood vessel forms
The lab studies the formation of the space inside blood vessels (the lumen) at the molecular level. It comprehensively analyzes gene expression in endothelial cells to search for new candidates, and tests how they function in lumen formation.
MembersFaculty
The lab's members consist of a Team Director, researchers, postdoctoral researchers, assistants, Junior Research Associates, and technical staff.As of 2026
- Visiting Associate ProfessorLi-Kun Phng
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Principle of Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy (LSFM)” ZEISS Microscopy / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- How endothelial cells change shape: “Bovine Pulmonary Artery Endothelial Cells Fluorescent Image” Erin Rod / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Blood flow forces and endothelial cell behavior: “Formation of the new blood vessels” Piotr Cywoniuk, Foundation of Research and Science Development, Poland Fundacja Badań i Rozwoju Nauki / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- How the inner space of a blood vessel forms: “Zebrafish Blood and Lymphatic Vessels ( )” Daniel Castranova, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH / Public domain (cropped)
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