On August 12, 2025, the Chinese Institutes for Medical Research (CIMR)- Yuval Rinkevich Lab hosted a seminar by Dr. Mingxia Gu, Associate Professor at the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. Her lecture, entitled “Unveiling the Mysteries of Vascular Development and Regeneration with Advanced Human Organoid Models,” presented new strategies for engineering vascularized human organoids.

Dr. Gu emphasized that vasculature and mesenchyme carry distinct organ-specific roles essential for sustaining tissue physiology. Recapitulating these interactions in vitro has been a long-standing challenge, limiting the ability of organoids to fully mimic human development and disease. Her team’s recent work addressed this by co-differentiating mesoderm and endoderm lineages from human iPSCs within a shared spheroid, enabling vascularized lung and intestinal organoids. By precisely modulating BMP signaling during early differentiation, they achieved balanced proportions of endothelial and epithelial progenitors, thereby promoting tissue-specific patterning and vascular integration.

This work not only advances the fidelity of organoid models but also establishes a conceptual framework for studying human organogenesis at unprecedented resolution. The approach opens new opportunities for regenerative medicine, modeling complex pathologies such as fibrosis or vascular disorders, and accelerating translational research that bridges developmental biology and clinical application.