The Rawlins lab studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of lung development and homeostasis using human organoid systems and mouse models. Our developmental work focuses on a population of multipotent epithelial progenitor cells which are required to build the lungs. We study how these cells integrate various local and systemic signalling cues to balance cell division and fate specification, whilst also participating in morphgenesis. Key developmental research areas include determining how cell-cell interactions control the development of the lung’s gas exchange surface.

Our adult work focuses on homeostasis, and repair, of the conducting airway epithelium. We study how the basal stem cells respond to local signals which can promote quiescence, or induce division and differentiation. We are particularly focused on understanding the mechanisms which allow this slow turn-over steady-state epithelium to respond rapidly to damage and then return to quiescence.