Year 4
During this period of funding we discovered a method to reproducibly recover stem cells from human airways and grow them in a dish into mature airway cells. We also discovered the role that certain metabolic cell processes play in regulating the repair after airway injury. We believe that an inability to shut off these processes leads to abnormal repair and lung cancer and are actively investigating this. We are also determining whether the stem cells we isolate from the airways are the stem cells for lung cancer and how they might give rise to lung cancer.