Description
The conducting airway epithelium of the rodent and human lung is made up of about equal proportions of ciliated and secretory cells. In addition, in regions where the epithelium is pseudostratfied, ~30% of the epithelium consists of undifferentiated basal cells (BCs). Evidence suggests that these BCs are multipotent stem cells that can self renew over the long term and give rise to both ciliated and secretory lineages. The goal of this project is to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the basal cells normally maintain the epithelium and repair it after injury.