Mori Lab

Worldwide, millions of patients suffer from refractory diseases. For many patients with end-stage disease, organ transplantation is the only treatment option. However, there is an absolute lack of adequate, available donor organs. Organ trafficking contributes to the donor organ shortage and rejection triggered by the recipient’s immune system reduces transplanted organ function and long-term survival. Generating a transplantable organ is a vital goal of stem cell-based therapies. Stem cell-based organ generation holds the potential to eliminate organ transplant rejection by utilizing the patient’s own healthy cells derived from reprogrammed stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells: iPSCs).  

Dr. Mori is a respiratory physician-scientist, and the ultimate goal of his research is to realize the achievement of transplantable human lung generation for patients suffering from refractory lung diseases. My newly established lab focuses on lung generation derived from pluripotent stem cells (PSC) including induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in vitro and in vivo. We investigate the molecular and cellular mechanisms essential for lung development, differentiation, and generation. As an initial attempt, we successfully generated whole functional lungs in vivo using a newly-developed iPSC culture recipe combined with a lung agenesis model in mice (Mori et al., Nature Medicine, 2019). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first successful case of generating entire lungs in a lung agenesis model. To launch this cutting-edge organ generative technology towards human lung production, we are dedicating our efforts to establishing a robust platform utilizing a pre-clinical large animal model. We accelerate state-of-the-art technology refinement by employing interdisciplinary approaches such as molecular biology, nanotechnology, bioengineering, genomics, and developmental biology. Our collaborations run across CUIMC departments and throughout the world. We aspire to generate transplantable, autologous lungs for patients suffering from refractory lung diseases. If successful, our research teams will exemplify a paradigm shift from stem cell-based therapies to stem cell-based organ therapies.