Biobanking Facility:
Development of the Human Lung Cell Repository and Human disease models to assess the airway epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit.
Human cell research is highly translational for understanding disease pathology. To enable such research, we have developed several disease relevant multi-cellular, 3D lung models, and the Human Lung Cell Repository which provides essential cells and tissues for many national and international collaborators. Please see relevant publications below:
The development of disease relevant models enables the identification of the causal determinants of airway remodeling, and the ability to test therapeutic strategies to inhibit lung disease phenotypes. Using the lung cell repository we have been able to investigate the transcriptomic and epigenetic regulation of cells within the epithelial-mesenchymal trophic unit (EMTU) and alterations within disease lesions. We also have access to services provided by the HLI Lung Tissue Registry which maintains a library of over 70,000 lung specimens donated by individuals undergoing lung surgery or non-transplantable donor lungs. They carry both paraffin embedded samples for histology work and frozen for RNA, DNA and protein work. 
