Li-Kun Phng, PhD

Team Director
Laboratory for Vascular Morphogenesis
RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research

Primary Research:

My lab aims to understand how blood vessels are built and shaped into a hierarchical tubular network of arteries, veins and capillaries of optimal connections and size. We are particularly interested in endothelial cell mechanobiology – how physical forces and mechanical properties govern their shapes and behaviours to drive distinct steps of vessel morphogenesis, from sprouting angiogenesis to vessel remodelling. We are also keen to elucidate the interplay between endothelial cells and the perivascular environment such as haemodynamic forces (shear stress and pressure) at the apical surface and mural cells on the abluminal surface. In the long term, we aim to uncover whether altered endothelial cell mechanobiology contributes to endothelial dysfunction and vascular anamolies. To address these questions, we employ a spectrum of methodologies such as zebrafish genetics, microfluidics, high resolution time-lapse confocal microscopy, optogenetics, pharmacology, quantitative image analyses, scRNA sequencing and mathematical modelling.

Laboratory web site URL:

https://phnglab.riken.jp/index.html

Recent Presentations:

2025 - 15th Taiwan Zebrafish Symposium, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan (Invited presentation)
2025 - Mechanobiology III Vietnam: From Fundamental Research to Applications, Quy Nhon, Vietnam (Invited presentation)
2024 - International Zebrafish Conference, Kyoto, Japan (Oral presentation)
2024 - International Symposium “Mechanical Control of Biological Self-organisation”, Kyoto, Japan (Oral presentation)
2024 - EMBO Workshop “Building Networks – Engineering in Vascular Biology”, Barcelona, Spain (Invited presentation)
2023 - MBI Conference “Mechanobiology in Health and Disease”, NUS, Singapore (Oral presentation)
2023 - Angiogenesis Gordon Research Conference, Salve Regina University, USA (Invited presentation)
2022 - 12th International Kloster Seeon Meeting “Angiogenesis”, Germany (Oral presentation)
2022 - Australia Vascular Biology Society Annual Symposium, online (Invited presentation)

Collaborate Relationships:

Anne Lagendijk, University of Queensland, Australia
Elisabeth Tournier-Lasserve, Paris University – INSERM U1141, France
Eoin McEvoy, University of Galway, Ireland
Julien Vermot, Imperial College London, UK
Mathias Francois, University of Sydney, Australia.
Salim Abdelilah-Seyfried, Potsdam University, Germany
Satoru Okuda, Kanazawa University, Japan
Tatsuo Shibata, RIKEN BDR, Japan
Yukiko Matsunaga, University of Tokyo, Japan