Turning patient stem cells into blood vessel support cells
A Novel Transcription Factor-Driven Approach for Mural Progenitor Cells Generation
This project develops a way to convert a person's stem cells into the support cells that wrap and stabilize blood vessels, aimed at helping people with vascular damage or disease.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Boston Children's Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11319839 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
Researchers will use human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and switch on specific transcription factors to guide them into mural progenitor cells, which give rise to pericytes and vascular smooth muscle. The team builds on prior work making blood-vessel lining cells and is testing a transcription factor called NKX3.1 to produce mural progenitors. They will grow these cells in lab-made vascular organoids and study how the progenitors mature when they interact with endothelial cells. The goal is to create patient-specific, functional vascular support cells that could be used for modeling disease or future regenerative therapies.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People with vascular disorders (or healthy volunteers) who can provide a small blood or skin sample for creating iPSCs would be the best candidates to contribute samples to this work.
Not a fit: Patients needing immediate clinical care, those who cannot provide biological samples, or people with conditions unrelated to blood vessels are unlikely to receive direct benefit from this laboratory-focused project in the short term.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could enable patient-specific cell sources for repairing or modeling blood vessel disorders and for testing new vascular treatments.
How similar studies have performed: Related transcription factor methods have successfully produced vascular endothelial cells, but using TFs to make mural progenitors is a newer approach with more limited prior validation.
Where this research is happening
Boston, United States
- Boston Children's Hospital — Boston, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Melero-Martin, Juan M — Boston Children's Hospital
- Study coordinator: Melero-Martin, Juan M
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.