The people behind the papers - Zhainib Amir-Ugokwe and Kristy Red-Horse

During human vascular development and regeneration, arterial cells can be made from both mesodermal and venous cells. Whilst in vitro human models of mesodermal to arterial conversion have been established, studies of arterial development and regeneration have been hampered by a lack of comparable systems modelling their differentiation from veins. In a new study, Zhainib Amir-Ugokwe, Lay Teng Ang, Kyle Loh, Kristy Red-Horse and colleagues present an in vitro model of vein-to-artery conversion using human pluripotent stem cells. To learn more about this research and the people behind it, we spoke to first author Zhainib Amir-Ugokwe and co-corresponding author Kristy Red-Horse, Professor of Biology and HHMI Investigator at Stanford University, USA.