Our group is broadly interested in self-organization of biological systems. We are currently focused on the question of how cells form tissues. To this end, we use stem cells to build organoids and study how the physicochemical environment and genetic program control multi-cellular organization.

Most recently, we have studied how geometry and topology emerge in neuroepithelial organoids and proposed a theoretical framework of morphogenesis based on the mechanical properties of cellular sheets (Ishihara et al. 2023). We are also interested in understanding how a small group of cells establish a body axis, which is a biological example of spontaneous symmetry breaking and pattern formation (Ishihara et al. 2018). Further, we are excited to apply our quantitative approaches to cardiac organoids and control their beating behavior. Our interdisciplinary research combines advanced microscopy, data analysis, and theoretical modeling. We welcome researchers from physical and computational sciences to join our group.