Our research explores how gene regulation shapes epithelial cell plasticity across multiple layers - from chromatin and epigenetic memory to RNA localization - together with crosstalk between epithelial cells and their niche during inflammation, wound healing and cancer.
Using the skin as a model, we investigate how tissue injury reshapes epithelial stem, progenitor and differentiated cell states through transcriptional, epigenetic and post-transcriptional mechanisms, regulating cellular plasticity, adaptation and memory during tissue regeneration and epithelial tumorigenesis.
We also investigate how RNA biology, including RNA localization, coordinates epithelial cell migration, tissue repair and cancer invasion, revealing how gene regulation extends beyond the nucleus to control epithelial cell behaviour across multiple subcellular compartments.
To address these questions, we combine unbiased in vitro genetic screening with in vivo bulk, single-cell and spatial omics, together with molecular and cellular biology, lineage tracing and computational approaches, to identify the regulatory networks that control epithelial cell fate, tissue regeneration and disease.