Current research interests in the Vascular Biology Laboratory include tissue engineering approaches using cells derived from human iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cells) in three-dimensional scaffolds to grow human blood vessel networks in the laboratory.

These engineered blood vessel networks could be surgically transplanted for the promotion of wound repair or incorporated into multicellular organoids for disease modelling and drug testing.

We are also growing human iPSC-derived skin and incorporating this skin with human iPSC blood vessel networks to produce a human skin flap entirely in the laboratory which has the potential for clinical application in patients with serious ‘difficult to heal’ skin wounds.

Key achievements

2002   Cancer Council Postdoctoral Fellowship

1997   Australian Postgraduate Award

Selected publications

Kong AM, Lim SY, Palmer JA, Rixon A, Gerrand YW, Yap KK, Morrison WA, Mitchell GM. Engineering transplantable human lymphatic and blood capillary networks in a porous scaffold. J Tissue Engineering 2022 (accepted).

Lyu Q, Gong S, Lees JG, Yin J, Yap LW, Kong AM, Shi Q, Fu R, Zhu Q, Dyer A, Dyson J, Lim SY, Cheng WA Soft and Ultrasensitive Force Sensing Diaphragm for Probing Cardiac Organoids Instantaneously and Wirelessly. Nat Commun 2022 (accepted).

Bio-engineering a tissue flap utilizing a porous scaffold incorporating a human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived endothelial cell capillary network connected to a vascular pedicle. Kong AM, Yap KK, Lim SY, Marre D, Pébay A, Gerrand YW, Lees JG, Palmer JA, Morrison WA, Mitchell GM. Acta Biomater. 2019 Aug;94:281-294. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.05.067.

Characterization of isolated liver sinusoidal endothelial cells for liver bioengineering.Dingle AM, Yap KK, Gerrand YW, Taylor CJ, Keramidas E, Lokmic Z, Kong AM, Peters HL, Morrison WA, Mitchell GM. Angiogenesis. 2018 Aug;21(3):581-597. doi: 10.1007/s10456-018-9610-0. Epub 2018 Mar 26.

Sustained subcutaneous delivery of secretome of human cardiac stem cells promotes cardiac repair following myocardial infarction. Kompa AR, Greening DW, Kong AM, McMillan PJ, Fang H, Saxena R, Wong RCB, Lees JG, Sivakumaran P, Newcomb AE, Tannous BA, Kos C, Mariana L, Loudovaris T, Hausenloy DJ, Lim SY. Cardiovasc Res. 2021 Feb 22;117(3):918-929. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvaa088.

ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8839-1602

Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com.au/citations?user=d5EpbqkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao