Members’ Labs

Juan Melero-Martin, PhD

Associate Professor
Cardiac Surgery
Boston Children's Hospital | Harvard Medical School

Primary Research:

Our lab studies how blood vessels form and applies this knowledge to regenerative medicine. We investigate the mechanisms of vascular cell differentiation and vessel assembly, with the goal of engineering functional vascular networks for therapeutic use. Current projects focus on generating endothelial and mural cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and developing vascular organoids (VOs) with a built-in vasculature.

We have pioneered approaches using vascular fate-determining transcription factors and mitochondrial transfer to enhance vascular cell function. These strategies are being applied in models of tissue ischemia, pancreatic islet transplantation, and hemophilia A. Looking ahead, our work is advancing vascular cell therapies by exploring both patient-specific and allogeneic VOs as platforms to revascularize ischemic tissues and restore organ function. Ultimately, our research integrates vascular biology, stem cell biology, and bioengineering to create next-generation therapies for vascular repair and regeneration.

Laboratory web site URL:

Meleromartinlab.com

Members of the Laboratory

Umji Lee, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Liyan Gong, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Upcoming faculty position)
Xiang (Grace) Li, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Gwang-Bum Im, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Yonglin Zhu, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Daniel M. Tremmel, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Alex Barutis – Research Assistant
Jinju Kim, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Shih-Yen Wei, PhD – Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Youlu Chen, PhD – Visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Vanessa García Fernández – Visiting Graduate Student (PhD candidate)
Dominic Recco, MD – Surgical Research Fellow

Recent Publications

Gong L, Zhang Y, Zhu Y, Lee U, Luo AC, Li X, Wang X, Chen D, Pu WT, Lin RZ, Ma M, Cui M, Chen K, Wang K *, Melero-Martin JM *. Rapid generation of functional vascular organoids via simultaneous transcription factor activation of endothelial and mural lineages. Cell Stem Cell 2025; Aug 7;32(8):1200-1217. PMID: 40516530.
Li X †, Kim HD †, Luo AC, Gong L, Zhu Y, Lee CN, Hong X, Sudduth CL, Ad M, An YH, Park MJ, Kim DG, Greene AK, Padwa BL, Hwang NS, Lin RZ, Melero-Martin JM *. Human bone-derived endothelial cells mediate bone regeneration via distinct expression of KIT ligand. Adv Sci 2025. Jun 23:e14194. PMID: 40549883.
Luo AC, Wang J, Wang K, Zhu Y, Gong L, Lee U, Li X, Tremmel DM, Lin RZ, Ingber DE, Gorman J, Melero-Martin JM. A streamlined method to generate endothelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells via transient doxycycline-inducible ETV2 activation. Angiogenesis 2024 Nov;27(4):779-795. PMID: 38969874.
Lee U †, Zhang Y †, Zhu Y, Luo AC, Gong L, Tremmel DM, Kim Y, Villarreal VS, Wang X, Lin RZ, Cui M, Ma M, Yuan K, Wang K *, Chen K *, Melero-Martin JM *. Robust differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into mural progenitor cells via transient activation of NKX3.1. Nat Commun 2024; Sep 30;15(1):8392. PMID: 39349465.
Lin RZ, Im GB, Luo AC, Zhu Y, Hong X, Neumeyer J, Tang HW, Perrimon N, Melero-Martin JM. Mitochondrial transfer mediates endothelial cell engraftment through mitophagy. Nature 2024; 629(8012):660-668. PMID: 38693258.