Year 3
We found a stem cell that is important for lung repair after injury that we believe may form precancerous areas in the lung. We are characterizing these stem cells and identifying pathways involved in normal repair and aberrant repair that leads to lung cancer. We are also isolating this stem cell population and other cell populations from the airway and inducing genetic changes to determine the tumor initiating cell/s for lung cancer. We are also examining the effect the environment may have on the regulation of genes in these stem cells, in precancerous areas and in lung cancers. Finally, we are examining human blood samples to assess levels of surrogate markers of these stem cells to assess whether we could use this as a biomarker to predict the presence or absence of lung cancer in patients with a lung nodule.