Li-Kun Phng: Combined forces of actin cytoskeleton and hydraulics in shaping blood vessels

Speaker: Li-Kun Phng, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Japan

Titel: Combined forces of actin cytoskeleton and hydraulics in shaping blood vessels

Dr. Phng is the Team Leader of Laboratory for Vascular Morphogenesis at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, Kobe, Japan. Her research is aimed at understanding the morphogenetic processes of blood vessel formation and remodelling, with the goal of determining how these processes go awry in vascular diseases.  Her work has uncovered novel cellular and mechanical mechanisms of vessel development, from sprouting angiogenesis to the determination of vessel size.

Dr. Phng obtained her Ph.D. from University College London in 2009, for her work on the role of Notch signalling in blood vessel patterning. She was awarded the EMBO and HFSP Long-term Fellowships to pursue postdoctoral research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg in 2009, and in VIB/KU Leuven, Belgium in 2011. During this period, she identified the functions of different actin structures at distinct steps of vessel morphogenesis using the zebrafish. She next moved to the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center Research Institute, Osaka, in 2014, after receiving the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Foreign Researchers. She was appointed to her current position as Team Leader at RIKEN CDB/BDR in Kobe, Japan, in October 2016. Her lab is currently focused on investigating endothelial cell mechanobiology and vessel morphogenesis using zebrafish, advanced imaging, cell biology, genetics, computational fluid dynamics and microfluidics.

Research areas: angiogenesis, vascular morphogenesis, vascular malformations, endothelial cell mechanobiology, actin cytoskeleton, hydraulics, imaging

The Meeting takes place at the Max Delbrück Communications Center and online via Zoom