The Lung Epithelium Conference: In Health and Disease

Jianwen Que is a Professor of Medicine at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center of Columbia University. His research is focused on the role of stem/progenitor cells in homeostasis and cancer development in the esophagus and lung. Due to his broad experience with a number of different mouse models - he has made several different knockin overexpression and knockout mice - his lab has expertise in the genetic manipulation of mice and in the isolation of cells and tissues, immunostaining of tissues, and related techniques. 

In the past 10 years, Jianwen’s lab has developed mouse genetic models of esophageal cancer that closely reflect human cancer in the esophagus. He also uses human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC) differentiation and organoids to study the mechanisms controlling organ development, stem cell maintenance, and malignant transformation. 

Xingbin Ai is a neurobiologist and developmental biologist in training at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on how early life events to the immature airway cause long-term changes in airway structure and function. One major research direction in her lab is to investigate the development of the nervous system in the airway and the role of the nerves in health and airway diseases of young children. To this end, her team has identified neurotrophic factors that are required for the innervation of airway smooth muscle and pulmonary neuroendocrine cells. 

Ai has active research projects to investigate the crosstalk between nerves and immune cells, airway smooth muscle cells, and pulmonary neuroendocrine cells in allergic asthma. Her lab has generated genetic tools to study airway innervation, developed novel models of childhood asthma, and pioneered cryopreservation of precision-cut human lung slices. The cryopreservation technique facilitates the translational research of airway physiology and injury responses using the human lung slice model. 
 

Jonathan Kropski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University. His research interests include the genetic basis of interstitial lung disease, rare/familial lung diseases, and molecular mechanisms of lung injury, repair, and fibrosis. His laboratory utilizes bioinformatic approaches as well as cell and transgenic animal models to investigate the molecular mechanisms through which genetic variants affect lung epithelial injury and repair mechanisms. 

Dr. Kropski received his undergraduate degree from Davidson College in 2004 and his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 2008. He completed his residency training in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary/Critical Care fellowship at Vanderbilt University.