Research Expertise and Interest

decoding stem-niche communication

Research Description

Ahmad Nabhan is an Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Development and Physiology.  

Communication between stem cells and their niche (stem-niche) is foundational for the collective cellular behavior of tissue repair and regeneration. The variable capacity to repair organs across different species is often dictated by differential stem-niche communication, highlighting the vast potential of modulating this cellular crosstalk towards regenerative therapies. However, the failure of clinical trials broadly modulating stem-niche signaling pathways such as Wnt and Tgf-B due to pleiotropy-associated toxicity underscores the need for new paradigms in understanding and manipulating stem-niche signaling. His lab’s central focus is on molecularly decoding stem-niche communication to better understand tissue maintenance and, ultimately, to reprogram this crosstalk for precision therapies that enhance organ repair.

Research in his lab includes using the lung alveolar stem cell and its interaction with its stromal niche as a model to study these broad questions. Alveolar stem cells are amongst the most dangerous cells in the body and disruption of their stem cell function underlies lung adenocarcinoma, the most frequent type of lung cancer. They have developed methods to genetically engineer primary alveolar stem cells and/or their niche then recreate their in vivo interactions ex vivo. This enables a high throughput, yet physiologically relevant dissection of their communication and how this crosstalk influences downstream processes such as stem cell proliferation, differentiation and surfactant production.