Sketching accurate picture of life - Only Details Determine! 

When I think and talk about making synthetic embryos and organoids, one analogy always comes to mind: my own attempts at hyper-realistic painting.  Though I’m no master artist, the parallels are clear. Both science and art require careful observation and attention to detail. A hyper-realistic painter studies every nuance of light, shadow, and texture, translating those fine details onto canvas to create a realistic representation.  Likewise, to build a faithful synthetic embryo, we must capture minute biological events—gene expression, mechanical forces, geometric constraints etc—through precise high-resolution, multiscale measurements. From there, two paths emerge.  We can lean on the innate self-organization of pluripotent stem cells, supplying only minimal external cues and letting nature take its course.  Or we can apply detailed bioengineering strategies, using our data-driven “instructions” to steer cells: controlling initial aggregate geometry and size, tuning cell–ECM interactions, and sculpting biochemical gradients.

My program lets me construct reference maps of normal embryogenesis—across species and developmental stages—and compare them directly with our synthetic models.  By pinpointing where organoids diverge from their in vivo counterparts, we learn exactly what “brushstrokes” are missing.  The consensus is clear: engineering self-organization requires robust instructions derived from multiscale, high-resolution data.  Armed with these blueprints, we can refine bioengineering workflows to generate PSC-derived organoids with unprecedented fidelity and reproducibility. Ultimately, this program will deliver the foundational tools and insights needed to decode and direct the principles of tissue formation and organogenesis—whether on canvas or in the culture dish.


Reference (real)   Reconstruction (oil painting on canvas 2020)