Dr. Lay Ang

Biography

As a stem cell biologist, I aim to understand the mechanisms by which stem cells differentiate into progressively specialized cell types and harness this knowledge to artificially generate pure populations of desired cell types from stem cells. My work over the past ten years has centered around pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which include embryonic pluripotent stem cells, and I have successfully generated hundreds of diverse cell types found in the human body. However, guiding PSCs to differentiate into pure populations of specific cell types remains notoriously challenging. Current differentiation strategies typically produce heterogeneous cell populations, which are unsuitable for basic research or clinical applications. To address this challenge, I have mapped the cascading branching lineage choices of PSCs differentiating into endodermal and mesodermal cell types. I have developed effective methods to differentiate PSCs into specific lineages by providing extracellular signals that specify a given lineage while inhibiting signals that induce alternate fates. My laboratory currently focuses on differentiating human PSCs into liver progenitors and blood vessel cells. I earned my Ph.D. jointly from the University of Cambridge and A*STAR and was subsequently appointed as a Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow at the Genome Institute of Singapore. I moved my laboratory to Stanford University as a Siebel Investigator and currently hold a joint appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urology and the Stem Cell Institute.

Research Interests