Over three million people die each year and over 60 million people suffer worldwide from chronic lung diseases (CLDs). At present, there is no cure for CLDs, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary hypertension, and pulmonary fibrosis. Lung transplantation is the only option at end-stage disease and is further complicated by shortage in organs available for transplantation and low efficacy. Five-year survival rate has remained at 50% for the last decade. New options are desperately needed for these patients.

My lab focuses on understanding the role of the extracellular environment for endogenous and exogenous lung tissue regeneration in healthy and diseased lung. In particular, our work focuses on the design and use of biologic and synthetic scaffolds to bioengineer new lung tissue for transplantation. We further aim to build new models of human lung tissue to reduce animal usage, better understand how regeneration processes are deranged in CLDs, and for use as drug discovery and therapeutic screening platforms.