The Zhou Laboratory 

At the Zhou Laboratory, we study how the vascular niche regulates lung repair, regeneration, and rejuvenation. Our research focuses on the dynamic lung microenvironment formed by endothelial, immune, epithelial, and stromal cells together with the extracellular matrix, and how interactions among these components maintain tissue homeostasis and determine responses to injury and regenerative capacity.

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We are particularly interested in how the pulmonary vascular niche senses and responds to infection, inflammation, metabolic stress, and aging, and how these signals regulate endothelial function and vascular integrity, immune-cell plasticity, stem and progenitor cell activity, epithelial regeneration, and tissue remodeling. By integrating vascular biology, immunology, metabolism, aging, and regenerative medicine, we seek to define the cellular and molecular programs that drive successful tissue repair and regeneration—or, when disrupted, lead to maladaptive remodeling and progressive disease.

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A major goal of our laboratory is to understand how dysfunction of the vascular niche contributes to severe lung and pulmonary vascular diseases, including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), pulmonary fibrosis, and pulmonary hypertension, and how aging and metabolic disorders compromise regenerative capacity, increase susceptibility to lung injury, and exacerbate disease progression. We are also exploring how vascular and immune niches can be therapeutically reprogrammed to restore a more youthful, resilient, and pro-regenerative tissue environment.

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By combining cutting-edge mouse models with advanced imaging, high-dimensional flow cytometry, new approach methodologies (NAMs), including organoids and precision-cut lung slices, and single-cell and spatial transcriptomic technologies, we interrogate the lung vascular niche at molecular, cellular, and tissue-level resolution to uncover mechanisms of injury, regeneration, and rejuvenation.

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Our long-term vision is to develop vascular niche–targeted strategies that restore tissue homeostasis, enhance endogenous repair and regeneration, and rejuvenate the injured or aged lung, ultimately establishing new therapeutic approaches for critical lung and pulmonary vascular diseases.