Dr. Huang'’s laboratory aims to understand the chemical and mechanical interactions between extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and pluripotent stem cells that regulate vascular and myogenic differentiation. The fundamental insights of cell-matrix interactions are applied towards stem cell-based therapies with respect to improving cell survival and regenerative capacity, as well as engineered vascularized tissues for therapeutic implantation. Current projects focus on the role of naturally-derived ECMs to enhance endothelial differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells on two-dimensional ECM microarrays of varying substrate rigidity. The knowledge gained from understanding cell-ECM interactions are applied towards engineering prevascularized skeletal or cardiac muscle constructs using nanotopographical cues derived from nanofibrillar ECMs.