The Blood Engineering Lab

We work at the intersection of bioengineering, immunology, and stem cell technology to invent new tools for understanding and treating cancers, autoimmune diseases, and aging

The mission of The Blood Engineering Lab (BEL) is to define fundamental principles of immune cell functions and apply these insights to cancer, autoimmune diseases, and aging. Our research aims Immuno ChatGPT, a platform to command immune functional modules to given cells. We define the immune system based on functional modules. Our strength in engineering both cells and gene circuits confers optimal immune functional modules to combat diseases.

The BEL is directed by Dr. Rio Sugimura at the University of Hong Kong.

Learn more about Rio

Featured Publications

Featured

Organoid-Based Single-Cell Spatiotemporal Gene Expression Landscape of Human Embryonic Development and Hematopoiesis

Chao, Y., Xiang, Y., Xiao, J., Zheng, W., Ebrahimkhani, M.R., Yang, C., Wu, A.R., Liu, P., Huang, Y., and Sugimura, R. (2023). Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 8, 230. doi: 10.1038/s41392-023-01455-y

Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Sugimura, R., Jha, D., Han, A., Soria-Valles, C., da Rocha, E., Lu, Y., Goettel, J., Serrao, E., Rowe, R., Malleshaiah, M., Wong, I., Sousa, P., Zhu, T., Ditadi, A., Keller, G., Engelman, A., Snapper, S., Doulatov, S., Daley, G. (2017). Nature, 545, 432-438.

Noncanonical Wnt Signaling Maintains Hematopoietic Stem Cells in the Niche

Sugimura, R., He, X.C., Venkatraman, A., Arai, F., Box, A., Semerad, C., Haug, J., Peng, L., Zhong, X., Suda, T., Li, L. (2012). Cell, 150, 351-365.