Vascular Development in Health & Disease  ·  University of Saskatchewan

How the body builds its blood and lymphatic vessels.

Whole zebrafish larva with fluorescently labelled blood vasculature
Zebrafish larva · blood vasculature · live confocal imaging · © Gauvrit Lab

We use zebrafish and mouse models, live imaging, and genetics to map how vascular networks form — and what goes wrong in vascular disease.

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Research

Building — and repairing — the vascular system

Blood and lymphatic vessels reach nearly every tissue in the body. We study how they are built during development, how the same programs are redeployed in disease and regeneration, and how that knowledge might be turned into therapy. Zebrafish are transparent for their first days of life, letting us watch vessels form in a living animal in real time.

01 · BLOOD

Angiogenesis & blood vessel patterning

How endothelial cells sprout, migrate, and assemble into a patterned network of arteries and veins — and the signals that tell a vessel where to grow.

EndotheliumSproutingLive imaging
02 · LYMPHATIC

Lymphangiogenesis & vessel identity

How lymphatic endothelial cells are specified and separated from the blood vasculature, and what this tells us about lymphedema and lymphatic disease.

PROX1VEGFC / FLT4Lymphedema
03 · SIGNALING

VEGF signaling & therapy resistance

Mapping the redundancy within the VEGF family to understand how tumors and diseased tissue escape anti-VEGFA therapies — and engineering tools to block that escape.

VEGF-AAnti-angiogenicsAMD
04 · DISEASE

Vessels in disease & regeneration

Using zebrafish and mouse as living models to ask how vascular networks fail in disease, and how revascularization supports tissue repair and regeneration.

Disease modelsRegenerationTranslation
How we work
Zebrafish genetics · CRISPR/Cas9
Mouse models
In vivo live confocal imaging
Transgenic fluorescent reporters
Cell & molecular biology
Model system

Why zebrafish?

A small tropical fish that lets us watch blood and lymphatic vessels assemble, live, inside a developing animal.

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is one of the most powerful models in vascular biology. Its embryos and larvae develop externally and are almost completely transparent, so an entire vascular network can be imaged as it forms in a living animal — at a resolution and over a timescale that simply aren't possible in mammals.

Just as importantly, the genetic toolkit is powerful. Transgenic lines light up endothelial cells and lymphatics in fluorescent colour, CRISPR/Cas9 makes gene editing fast and precise, and the core pathways that build vessels are conserved with humans. Large clutches and rapid development make zebrafish ideal for genetic screens and for asking what happens when vascular development goes wrong. That combination is exactly why we use them to study the vasculature in health and disease.

  • Optically transparent — live imaging of vessels in vivo
  • Rapid, external development and large clutches
  • Vascular signalling conserved with humans
  • Transgenic reporters that label blood vessels and lymphatics
  • CRISPR/Cas9 genetics, and amenable to drug screening
Live imaging with a nanobody-based fluorescent reporter (shown in inverted greyscale) — the kind of probe engineering and live microscopy at the core of the lab's work. © Gauvrit Lab
Team

The people behind the lab

Dr. Sébastien Gauvrit

Dr. Sébastien Gauvrit

Principal Investigator · Assistant Professor

Originally from France, Sébastien trained in vascular and developmental biology and pioneered new models of vascular disease during his postdoctoral work in Germany. He now leads the lab as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology at the University of Saskatchewan, where the team uses zebrafish and mouse models to understand how the vascular system forms in health and disease.

Liubov Lobanova

Liubov Lobanova

Research Technician
Read bio

Liubov is a laboratory technician with a strong passion for uncovering the microscopic mysteries of life. She holds a BSc in Microbiology and an MSc in Vaccinology and Immunotherapeutics from the University of Saskatchewan. Her scientific journey has been an engaging, multidisciplinary exploration, spanning a wide range of fields.

Over the years, she has developed core expertise in immunology, virology, cancer research, and the mechanisms of the circadian clock. While she maintains a broad and lasting interest in molecular biology, Liubov is particularly energized by understanding biology at a systems level. Recently, she has become deeply interested in the lymphatic system and the complexities of developmental biology.

She is especially fascinated by intricate cellular signalling pathways and protein–protein interactions that govern cell development, communication, and function. For Liubov, science is about connecting insights across disciplines to address complex questions from innovative perspectives.

Wrynan Munabirul

Wrynan Munabirul

MSc Student
Read bio

An international student from the Philippines, Wrynan holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry with a specialization in computational bioinformatics and drug design. Before coming to Canada for his graduate studies, he served as a university instructor at his alma mater, teaching undergraduate chemistry courses to pre-medicine students. He also gained experience in agricultural chemistry laboratories, where he was involved in quality assurance testing.

Currently, Wrynan's research in the Gauvrit Lab focuses on identifying downstream signalling pathways that regulate vascular homeostasis and proliferation. He is also developing in silico prediction tools to support the design of alternative pharmacological inhibitors for pathological angiogenesis.

Ana Gabriel

Ana Gabriel

MSc Student
Read bio

Ana and her four-legged furry monster are transplants from the U.S. An animal lover at heart, Ana completed her B.Sc. in Biology at Rockhurst University, where she fell in love with a plate of developing zebrafish embryos. She enjoys running (slowly) across the beautiful Saskatchewan prairies with her monster, who usually drags her for miles.

In the Gauvrit lab, Ana studies the influence of key genes in the development of the lymphatic system using both zebrafish and mice. She enjoys building the transgenic tools that will facilitate this project and sweet-talking bacteria into making the genes she wants.

ZH

Zyna Hernandez

MSc Student
ME

Maureen Ekwunife

Summer Student
Alumni
CZ
Cole ZapesockiFormer Lab Member
Publications

Selected papers

A selection from the lab and from Sébastien's earlier work. The full, up-to-date list lives on Google Scholar.

2025

Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy for analysis of free radicals in zebrafish

Sabetghadam Moghadam M, Wiens E, Gauvrit S, Sammynaiken R, Collins MM.  PLOS ONE 20(2), e0318212
2024

A β-catenin chromobody-based probe highlights endothelial maturation during vascular morphogenesis in vivo

Gauvrit S, Zhao S, Rothbauer U, Stainier DYR.  Development 151(11), dev202122
2022

Modeling human cardiac arrhythmias: insights from zebrafish

Gauvrit S, Bossaer J, Lee J, Collins MM.  J. Cardiovasc. Dev. Dis. 9(1), 13
2020

Nfatc1 promotes interstitial cell formation during cardiac valve development in zebrafish

Gunawan F, Gentile A, Gauvrit S, Stainier DYR, Bensimon-Brito A.  Circulation Research 126(8), 968–984
2018

HHEX is a transcriptional regulator of the VEGFC/FLT4/PROX1 signaling axis during vascular development

Gauvrit S, Villaseñor A, Strilic B, Kitchen P, Collins MM, Marín-Juez R, et al., Stainier DYR.  Nature Communications 9, 2704
2016

Fast revascularization of the injured area is essential to support zebrafish heart regeneration

Marín-Juez R, Marass M, Gauvrit S, Rossi A, Lai SL, Materna SC, Black BL, Stainier DYR.  PNAS 113(40), 11237–11242
2016

Real-time 3D visualization of cellular rearrangements during cardiac valve formation

Pestel J, Ramadass R, Gauvrit S, Helker C, Herzog W, Stainier DYR.  Development 143(13), 2217–2227
2016

Regulation of Vegf signaling by natural and synthetic ligands

Rossi A, et al. (incl. Gauvrit S), Stainier DYR.  Blood 128(19), 2359–2366
2014

The role of RNA interference in the developmental separation of blood and lymphatic vasculature

Gauvrit S, et al.  Vascular Cell 6, 9
News

What's happening

May 2026

Wrynan receives a College of Medicine Graduate Student Award (CoMGRAD)

Congratulations to Wrynan, who was awarded a College of Medicine Graduate Student Award (CoMGRAD) in support of his graduate research in the lab.

Mar 2026

Congratulations to Maureen and Zyna on their research funding for this summer!

Maureen received a Biomed studentship supported by the Office of the Vice-Dean Research, College of Medicine, and Zyna was awarded both an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) and a Biomed studentship. Congratulations to you both!

Oct 2025

College of Medicine Research Award

Sébastien received a College of Medicine Research Award from the University of Saskatchewan in support of the lab's research.

Jul 30, 2025

Featured on the Research Under the Scope podcast

Sébastien was a guest on the University of Saskatchewan's Research Under the Scope podcast — "Fishing for Answers in Vascular Biology." Listen on Apple Podcasts →

2025

Two NSERC grants to grow the lab

The lab received two NSERC awards totalling $340,000 to expand USask's zebrafish facility and advance our vascular modeling work.

Support

Support the lab

Philanthropy moves discovery faster than grants alone. If you'd like to help advance our research into vascular disease, I'd be glad to hear from you.

Partner with our research

Gifts to the lab have a direct and lasting impact. Support can help us:

  • Sustain and expand our zebrafish imaging facility
  • Train the next generation of vascular biologists
  • Push toward new approaches for diseases like age-related macular degeneration and lymphedema

Whether you're an individual, a foundation, or an industry partner, gifts can be arranged through the University of Saskatchewan and directed to our work. Reach out and let's talk about what's possible.

Contact Sébastien about giving
Contact

Get in touch

Department
Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology
College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan
Find us
Health Sciences Building (HLTH), Room 3B40
107 Wiggins Road, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E5
Joining the lab
If you're interested in joining the lab, please email me your CV, academic transcript, and a short statement of your research motivation.
Land Acknowledgement

The University of Saskatchewan's main campus is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis. We pay our respect to the First Nations and Métis ancestors of this place and reaffirm our relationship with one another.

Funding & Support

With thanks to our funders

Our research is made possible by the generous support of these organizations.

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC / CRSNG) University of Saskatchewan, College of Medicine