Development/Organoid | Chulan Kwon Laboratory at Johns Hopkins

Development & Organoid

We are interested in investigating how pluripotent cells give rise to cardiac progenitors and form the heart during embryogenesis. We are also generating stem cell-derived organoids that recapitulate this in vivo process. By combining these approaches, we aim to better understand early heart development.

Sulfotransferase Signaling Sustains Fibroblast Identity and Antagonizes Therapeutic Cardiac Reprogramming

Romero MR, Murph S, Chang YL, Lamba A, Ancel S, Llorente A, Marchant J, Huang CT, Kumsta C, Andersen P, Ranade S, Mahmoud A, Kwon C, Freeze H, Adams PD, Sacco A, Ranek M, Emerling BM, Wang W, Colas AR

Nature Communications 2026

Decoding Cardiac Development and Maturation at Single-Cell and Spatial Transcriptomic Resolution

Li B, Liu X, Murph S, Tampakakis E, Kwon C

Circulation Research 2026

Muscle Loss as a Foundational Step in the Development and Evolution of the Turtle Shell

Foster W, Gensbigler P, Bletcher M, Forjaz A, Li B, Matos-Romero V, Kwon C, Kiemen A, Lyson T, Bever GS

bioRxiv 2026

Mesodermal Cells Fail to Contribute to Heart Formation Following Blastocyst Injection

Li B, Kwon C

Biochem Biophys Rep. 2025

Cardiac Progenitors Instruct Second Heart Field Fate through Wnts

Miyamoto M, Kannan S, Anderson MJ, Liu X, Suh D, Htet M, Li Biyi, Kakani T, Murphy S, Tampakakis E, Lewandoski M, Andersen P, Uosaki H, Kwon C

PNAS 2023

Conserved Transcription Factors Promote Cell Fate Stability and Restrict Reprogramming Potential in Differentiated Cells

Missinato MA, Murphy S, Lynott M, Yu MS, Kervadec A, Chang YL, Kannan S, Loreti M, Lee C, Amatya P, Tanaka H, Huang CT, Puri PL, Kwon C, Adams PD, Qian L, Sacco A, Andersen P, Colas AR

Nature Communications 2023

Platform-Agnostic CellNet Enables Cross-Study Analysis of Cell Fate Engineering Protocols

Lo EKW, Velazquez JJ, Peng D, Kwon C, Ebrahimkhani MR, Cahan P.

Stem Cell Reports 2023

Uncovering the Origins and Lineage Markers of Human Heart Fields

Miyamoto M, Kwon C

Cell Stem Cell 2022

A Mouse Model with Complete Penetrance for Atrioventricular Septal Defect/Complete AV Canal

Li Y, Andersen P, Liu X, Moyer AJ, Kwon C*, Reeves R*

bioRxiv 2022

Noncanonical Notch Signals Have Opposing Roles during Cardiac Development

Miyamoto M, Andersen P, Sulistio E, Liu X, Murphy S, Kannan S, Nam L, Miyamoto W, Tampakakis E, Hibino N, Uosaki H, Kwon C

BBRC 2021

Capturing Cardiogenesis in Gastruloids

Rossi G, Broguiere N, Miyamoto M, Boni A, Guiet R, Girgin M, Kelly RG, Kwon C, Lutolf MP

Cell Stem Cell 2021

Heart Organoids and Tissue Models for Modeling Development and Disease

Miyamoto M, Nam L, Kannan S, Kwon C

Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology 2021

Pluripotent Stem Cells Are Insensitive to the Cytotoxicity of TNFα and IFNγ

Chen B, Gurung C, Guo J, Kwon C, Guo YL

Reproduction 2020

Proteogenomic Single Cell Analysis of Skeletal Muscle Myocytes

Fomchenko KM, Verma RX, Kannan S, Lin BL, Yang X, Nieuwenhuis TO, Patil AH, Fox-Talbot K, McCall MN, Kwon C, Kass DA, Rosenberg AZ, Halushka MK

bioRxiv 2020

Precardiac Organoids Form Two Heart Fields via Bmp/Wnt Signaling

Andersen P, Tampakakis E, Jimenez DV, Kannan S, Miyamoto M, Shin HK, Saberi A, Murphy S, Sulistio E, Chelko SP, Kwon C

Nature Communications 2018

Tbx6 Induces Nascent Mesoderm from Pluripotent Stem Cells and Temporally Controls Cardiac versus Somite Lineage Diversification

Sadahiro T, Isomi M, Muraoka N, Kojima H, Haginiwa S, Kurotsu S, Tamura F, Tani H, Tohyama S, Fujita J, Miyoshi H, Kawamura Y, Goshima N, Iwasaki YW, Murano K, Saito K, Oda M, Andersen P, Kwon C, Uosaki H, Nishizono H, Fukuda K, Ieda M

Cell Stem Cell 2018

Beta1-Integrin Is a Cell-Autonomous Factor Mediating the Numb Pathway for Cardiac Progenitor Maintenance

Gibbs BC, Shenje L, Andersen P, Miyamoto M, Kwon C

BBRC 2018

Sall1 Transiently Marks Undifferentiated Heart Precursors and Regulates their Fate

Morita Y, Andersen P, Hotta A, Tsukahara Y, Sasagawa N, Hayashida N, Koga C, Nishikawa M, Saga Y, Evans SM, Koshiba-Takeuchi K, Nishinakamura R, Yoshida Y, Kwon C, Takeuchi JK

JMCC 2016

Coins of the Realm in Atrioventricular Junction Development

Kwon C, Tomaselli GF

Criculation Research 2015

Precardiac Deletion of Numb and Numblike Reveals Renewal of Cardiac Progenitors

Shenje LT, Andersen P, Uosaki H, Fernandez L, Rainer PP, Cho GS, Lee DI, Zhong W, Harvey RP, Kass DA, Kwon C

eLife 2014

Identification of Chemicals Inducing Cardiomyocyte Proliferation in Developmental Stage-Specific Manner with Pluripotent Stem Cells

Uosaki H, Magadum A, Seo K, Fukushima H, Takeuchi A, Nakagawa Y, Moyes KW, Narazaki G, Kuwahara K, Laflamme M, Matsuoka S, Nakatsuji N, Nakao K, Kwon C, Kass DA, Engel FB, Yamashita JK

Circ Cardiovasc Genet. 2013

Fibronectin Mediates Mesendodermal Cell Fate Decisions

Cheng P, Andersen P, Hassel D, Kaynak BL, Limphong P, Juergensen L, Kwon C*, Srivastava D*

Development 2013

Direct Contact with Endoderm-like Cells Efficiently Induces Cardiac Progenitors from Mouse and Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Uosaki H, Andersen P, Shenje LT, Fernandez L, Christiansen SL, Kwon C

PLoS One 2012

Non-canonical Notch Signaling: Emerging Role and Mechanism

Andersen P, Uosaki H, Shenje LT, Kwon C

Trends in Cell Biology 2012

Notch Post-translationally Regulates β-catenin Protein in Stem and Progenitor Cells

Kwon C*, Cheng P, King IN, Andersen P, Shenje L, Nigam V, Srivastava D*