WELCOME TO
LANDAU-LEVI LAB
Exploring the Future of Cardiovascular Disease Modeling
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
OUR MISSION
Advancing Human Health Through Organ-on-a-Chip Innovation
Our mission is to create human-relevant organ-on-a-chip platforms that transform the way we study cardiovascular health and disease. By integrating engineered tissues, vascular networks, and immune components, we aim to uncover mechanisms that cannot be captured in animals and accelerate the development of more precise, effective therapies.
RESEARCH FOCUS
Advancing Cardiovascular Disease Modeling and Drug Screening
How do we model the human heart?
The heart is a remarkably complex organ made up of specialized cells working in tight coordination. Because animal models often fail to capture human-specific cardiac physiology, our lab develops advanced organ-on-a-chip (OoC) platforms that recreate key features of human heart function. Using iPSC- and ESC-derived cardiomyocytes, we generate functional cardiac tissues that allow us to probe mechanisms of health and disease with human relevance.
Why build vascularized and immune-competent cardiac tissues?
Cardiac function is deeply shaped by the surrounding vasculature and immune environment. We engineer microphysiological systems that incorporate endothelial networks, stromal cells, and macrophage populations to study how immune–vascular interactions contribute to development, remodeling, and disease progression. These platforms help us uncover mechanisms that cannot be captured in traditional models.
How do organs communicate with the heart?
The heart does not operate in isolation, it responds to signals from other organs, including the placenta during pregnancy and tumors in cancer. We design multi-organ chips that connect cardiac tissues with placental or cancer-derived compartments to study maternal–fetal signaling, inflammation, metabolic stress, and how systemic disease impacts cardiac function.
What can multi-organ chips teach us about disease?
By linking tissues through a shared microvascular network, we capture long-range communication that shapes disease pathology. In pregnancy-related cardiovascular disorders, for example, we investigate how placental dysfunction affects maternal heart health. In cancer models, we study how tumor-secreted factors influence cardiac performance and treatment-related cardiotoxicity.
How does this advance therapeutic discovery?
Together, our single-organ and multi-organ platforms enable highly controlled, human-relevant studies that improve prediction of disease mechanisms and treatment responses. Because many of these conditions cannot be faithfully recapitulated in animal models, particularly complex immune–vascular interactions, pregnancy-specific disorders, and cancer–heart communication, our systems provide critical insights that traditional models cannot capture. These tools pave the way for more precise therapeutic development,