01DERIVE
Derive
Human iPSCs are differentiated into endothelial cells, pericytes and cardiomyocytes. They're renewable, donor-matched, and free of animal tissue.
Human vasculature, rebuilt
Based in the National Heart & Lung Institute at Imperial College London,
we engineer living human tissues to study cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.
Programming vascular biology
to unlock next-generation medicines.
Human
Fully human tissues, to provide fully human responses.
Animal-sparing
Mindful of the 3R principles: Reduce, Refine and Replace animal experiments.
Programmable cells
Gene editing to enhance vascular function.
Programmable environments
Engineering cell culture environments at the microscale.
Engineering the microcirculation.
We bring together stem-cell biology, microfabrication and quantitative imaging to build human vascular tissue that behaves like the real thing, then use it to understand and treat disease. Four themes run through the work.
iPSC-EC · CD31Lumenised · 3D
Perfusable microvascular networks
Endothelial cells derived from human iPSCs will self-organise into three-dimensional, lumenised networks when given the right matrix and mechanical cues. We build these networks so they can be perfused end-to-end, then image them living.
That lets us measure barrier function, sprouting and remodelling as they happen, rather than inferring them from fixed endpoints.
Device · top view~1 Hz
Cardiac & vascular organ-on-chip
The heart and its vasculature don't work in isolation, so our chips don't separate them. We integrate beating iPSC-cardiomyocytes with vascular beds on a single device under controlled flow.
The result is a compact human system in which cardiac and endothelial cells signal to one another the way they do in tissue.
Read-out · illustrative
Organotypic disease modelling
With human tissue on-chip we can impose disease directly: oxygen deprivation and reperfusion, inflammatory challenge, the endothelial collapse of sepsis. Then we read out the response in the cells that matter.
The aim is models faithful enough to replace animal experiments for the questions they were never well suited to answer.
24 donors · 1 plateVariability → signal
Population-scale vascular biology
Two people with the same diagnosis can have very different vessels. By building networks from many donors in parallel, we turn person-to-person variability from noise into signal.
We ask which differences in vascular behaviour track with genetic background and clinical risk.
From a single cell to a perfused vessel.
Each model we build follows the same four steps. Because every step is human-derived and measurable, a result on-chip can be traced back to the donor it came from.
02ASSEMBLE
Assemble
Inside microfluidic devices, cells self-organise in a 3D matrix into lumenised networks, guided by the mechanical and chemical cues we design.
03PERFUSE
Perfuse
Networks connect to flow, with arterial in and venous out, under physiological shear, so the endothelium matures the way it does in the body.
04MEASURE
Measure
Live confocal imaging, barrier assays and single-cell sequencing feed quantitative image analysis, which turns vessels into numbers we can model.
Meet the team.
We are a multi-disciplinary group of biologists, bioengineers and bioinformaticians working at the cutting edge of cardiovascular and pulmonary research.
Lab values
People first
Mentorship, fair credit and a lab to fulfil your potential.
Build the tools
If the right device or analysis doesn't exist yet, we make it, and we share it.
Quality over quantity
Rigorous science in the age of AI is more important than ever.
Team bios
Principal Investigator
Dr Alexander J. Ainscough
Alex leads the lab. Alex trained at Imperial College London (PhD) and the Wyss Institute at Harvard (postdoc), and brings a background in control theory and computer science to vascular tissue engineering, treating living systems as things that can be measured, modelled and re-engineered.
- Current
- Assistant Professor & Director of VIBES Lab,
National Heart & Lung Institute,
Imperial College London - Postdoc
- Harvard University,
Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering - PhD
- Imperial College London
- Masters
- Imperial College London
- Bachelors
- University of Hull
Current PhD Students
MK
Mahir Khan
PhD Student
CE
Clara Evans
PhD Student
BM
Benedict Moss
PhD Student
CW
Chloe Wilson
PhD Student
FA
Fatima AlMadani
PhD Student
Current Masters Students
HC
Henry Chapman
MSc Student
Current BSc Students
FF
Fiona Fusenig
BSc Student
Join us
Backgrounds in cell biology, bioengineering, physics or computation are all welcome. Curiosity matters more than a perfect fit.
Rolling
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Lead a theme, from microvascular engineering to cardiac-on-chip.
Enquire RollingPhD Students
Funded and self-funded routes. Biology, engineering or computation.
Enquire RollingResearch Technician
Help run and grow the lab's iPSC and microfabrication pipelines.
Enquire RollingMSc & UROP Projects
Short, real projects with a path to authorship.
EnquireLab News.
PeopleOct 2026
Welcome to our new lab members
Mahir Khan (BHF PhD Student), Clara Evans (BHF-CRE / BRC NIHR PhD Student), Henry Chapman (Masters Student) and Fiona Fusenig (BSc Student) join the lab.
Meet the team →RecruitingRolling
We're recruiting
PhD, postdoc, technician and student project positions are open, with rolling deadlines.
See open roles →Congratulations
A distinction for Mahir
Mahir Khan received a distinction for his Masters degree. Congratulations, Mahir!
People
Summer placement students join
Justin Chan and Lexie Thorne join the lab for summer placements (June – October 2026).
Funding
BHF-CRE / BRC NIHR PhD Studentship awarded
Funding
BHF PhD Studentship awarded
People
Mahir Khan joins as a Masters student
October 2025 – March 2026.
People
Jon Wang joins as a UROP student
June – October 2025.
Funding
Royal Society Research Grant awarded
Award
Imperial BHF Centre for Research Excellence ECR Award
Milestone
The VIBES Lab opens
The lab launches at the National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London.
Selected publications.
Preprint
Organ on chip model of respiratory vascular interactions under COPD relevant oxidative stress
Haensel M, Millns R, Whitwell H, Ainscough AJ, van Batenburg-Sherwood J, Breuil L, Kostuynina D, Lloyd C, Wojciak-Stothard B
bioRxiv · 2026
Article
Engineered pulmonary artery tissues for measuring contractility, drug testing and disease modelling
Fellows AL, Quigley K, Leung V, Ainscough AJ, Wilkins MR, Barnett H, Miller D, Mayr M, Wojciak-Stothard B
British Journal of Pharmacology 182(12), 2585–2602 · 2025
Article
Photoinitiator-free light-mediated crosslinking of dynamic polymer and pristine protein networks
Rizzo R, Barber DM, Wilt JK, Ainscough AJ, Lewis JA
Biomaterials Science 13(1), 210–222 · 2025
Article
Embedding biomimetic vascular networks via coaxial sacrificial writing into functional tissue
Stankey PP, Kroll KT, Ainscough AJ, Reynolds DS, Elamine A, Fichtenkort BT, Uzel SGM, Lewis JA
Advanced Materials 36(36), 2401528 · 2024
Article
Biomimetic human skin model patterned with rete ridges
Nagarajan MB, Ainscough AJ, Reynolds DS, Uzel SGM, Bjork JW, Baker BA, McNulty AK, Woulfe SL, Lewis JA
Biofabrication 16, 015006 · 2023
Article
An organ-on-chip model of pulmonary arterial hypertension identifies a BMPR2-SOX17-prostacyclin signalling axis
Ainscough AJ, Smith TJ, Haensel M, Rhodes CJ, Fellows A, Whitwell HJ, Vasilaki E, Gray K, … , Wilkins MR, Edel JB, Wojciak-Stothard B
Communications Biology 5, 1192 · 2022
Book chapter
Endothelial cells and endothelium
Hislop A, Ainscough AJ, Wojciak-Stothard B
Academic Press · 2022
Article
Therapeutic potential of KLF2-induced exosomal microRNAs in pulmonary hypertension
Sindi HA, Russomanno G, Satta S, Abdul-Salam VB, Jo KB, Qazi-Chaudhry B, Ainscough AJ, … , Wilkins MR, Wojciak-Stothard B
Nature Communications 11, 1185 · 2020
Review
Translational roadmap for the organs-on-a-chip industry toward broad adoption
Allwardt V, Ainscough AJ, Viswanathan P, Sherrod SD, McLean JA, Haddrick M, Pensabene V
Bioengineering 7(3), 112 · 2020
Article
Nanoscale tweezers for single-cell biopsies
Nadappuram BP, Cadinu P, Barik A, Ainscough AJ, Devine MJ, Kang M, Gonzalez-Garcia J, … , Ivanov AP, Edel JB
Nature Nanotechnology 14(1), 80–88 · 2019
Article
Neutrophil extracellular traps promote angiogenesis: evidence from vascular pathology in pulmonary hypertension
Aldabbous L, Abdul-Salam V, McKinnon T, Duluc L, Pepke-Zaba J, Southwood M, Ainscough AJ, Hadinnapola C, Wilkins MR, Toshner M, Wojciak-Stothard B
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 36(10), 2078–2087 · 2016
No publications match that search.
Let's build something.
Email is the best way to start a conversation. Use the lab inbox for most things, or contact Alex directly.
Lab enquiries
Contact the lab
Visits, collaborations and general questions. For enquiries addressed to Alex personally, email him directly.
Prospective lab members
Join the lab
PhD students, postdocs, technicians and project students: send a CV and a short note on what draws you to the work, and which research theme you'd want to build on.
Partnerships
Partner with us
We work with clinicians, engineers and industry on human-relevant models for target discovery, safety and efficacy testing.
Find usNational Heart & Lung Institute · Imperial College London · London, United Kingdom