​Our Mission...

The goal of our research is to understand the normal repair processes in the airway that recapitulate lung development. Studying these adult stem cells in repair and regeneration of the lungs may provide new insights into diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and bronchiolitis obliterans. The ultimate goal is to use this knowledge to develop novel targeted therapies and prevention strategies for lung diseases.

We have identified a progenitor cell population that is important in airway epithelial repair, but persists in pre-malignant lesions and is associated with a poor prognosis in lung tumors. This finding may help predict patients with a higher likelihood of recurrence of their lung cancer and also suggests that this progenitor cell population may be the tumor-initiating cell for some lung cancers. Thus, understanding the biology of these progenitor cells may help develop therapies to prevent the development of lung cancer.