Research Projects

While a tissue forms, its cells constantly push and pull on each other. Young cells that have not yet chosen what to become, called progenitors, add forces of their own as they move into place. We want to know how these forces work together to build a tissue that does its job.

In the skin of frog embryos, new ciliated cells squeeze up into the outer layer and feel how stiff it is with thin, finger-like protrusions. We image this process in living embryos and use techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) to measure mechanical forces and analyze tissue mechanics.

During development, the mucociliary epithelium experiences dynamic mechanical forces as surrounding tissues grow and remodel. We investigate how stretching and compression influence cell fate decisions and whether their effects depend on developmental timing. By applying controlled mechanical perturbations at defined stages, we aim to identify critical windows of mechanosensitivity and uncover how physical forces regulate epithelial cell differentiation.

Each new cell in a developing airway lining becomes one of a few types, such as cells that grow cilia and cells that make mucus. Two kinds of data describe how. Movies show how every cell changes shape and moves. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq) reads which genes each cell is using.

By integrating live imaging with single-cell transcriptomics, we investigate how cells acquire their identities during epithelial development. Our research reveals that dynamic changes in cell shape can predict future cell fate, while distinct cell types emerge progressively from shared progenitor states rather than following rigid, predetermined lineages.

We develop reproducible and scalable 3D human respiratory organoids from patient-derived tissues for disease modelling and high-throughput compound screening. By integrating quantitative measurements of organoid mechanical properties, we investigate how changes in tissue mechanics contribute to pathological epithelial remodeling in respiratory diseases, including asthma, COPD, and pulmonary fibrosis.