Organs of sensation — inner ear, retina, skin, tongue, and nose — emerge from tightly orchestrated cell–cell and tissue–matrix interactions. In our lab we ask: How do individual cells and progenitor populations coordinate to generate functioning sensory tissues? What are the molecular “software and hardware” that drive organ assembly? By guiding human pluripotent stem cells through defined trajectories in 3-D culture, we re-create the early steps of organogenesis — allowing us to watch and perturb these processes in human-relevant systems. 

For example, our early work on inner-ear organoids established pathways to generate hair-cell like sensory epithelia in vitro (Koehler et al. 2013, 2014, 2017). 

More recently, we’ve engineered skin organoids that contain epidermis, dermis, hair follicles, sebaceous glands, fat, and nerve fibers—creating one of the most complete human skin models to date (Lee et al., 2018, 2020, 2022). 

These juxtaposed platforms enable us to compare organogenesis across sensory systems, learn general principles of tissue assembly, and test new strategies for reconstruction or regeneration.