PhD
Professor, Cell Biology and Physiology
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Cell Biology
Area of Interest
Research in my lab is currently focused on five areas where a greater knowledge of basic cell biology can be applied towards overcoming clinical lung disease problems.
- Identification of Airway Epithelial Stem Cells: Our goals are to identify and isolate airway epithelial stem cells and to understand molecular mechanisms regulating airway epithelial cell proliferation and fate.
- Cell Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis (CF): As a member of the CF Foundation Stem Cell Consortium we are collaborating widely to help find cures for everyone with CF. Our particular focus is finding treatments for Class 1 CFTR variants, cell therapy, and in vivo gene editing.
- Innate Immunity in the Airway: Our goals are to better understand airway epithelial adaptation to chronic injury and infection and to understand the relationship of adaptation to the pathogenesis of airway disease.
- Inhalation Exposure Hazards: We are examining mechanisms of airway and lung injury relevant to inhalation exposure hazards, particularly burn pit emissions.
- UNC CF Center Tissue Procurement and Cell Culture Core: This Core provides primary and passaged human and animal lung cells, media and expertise to UNC CF Center investigators and collaborators. This facility is a nationally and internationally recognized resource whose services are sought for collaboration, contract research, and training by academics, non-profit organizations, biotech and the pharmaceutical industry. It has been particularly important for research on emerging pathogens and disease pathogenesis studies including H1N1, SARS CoV1, MERS and SARS CoV2/COVID-19.
Awards and Honors
- Highly Cited Researchers (Top 1%), Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics, 2023
