John Peponis’ graduate research project aimed to use decellularized spinach leaves to tackle big design challenges in making artificial organs.Peponis developed a decellularization process to remove cells from spinach leaves and seed human endothelial cells to form blood vessels. This process takes advantage of the natural similarity between the vein structure of spinach leaves and human capillaries. Currently an adjunct faculty in the BME Department, Peponis is continuing the project to integrate these artificial blood vessels with 3D bioprinting to provide patients with customized implants.