Based at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, the EpiCENTR group studies how airway epithelial stem cells build, maintain, and repair the respiratory epithelium.
We study how airway epithelial stem cells establish, maintain, and repair the respiratory epithelium. Our work focuses on the molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell behaviour, including interactions with the extracellular matrix and how these go wrong in epithelial diseases.
We have developed lentiviral tools to study airway differentiation and identified Wnt signalling as a key regulator of basal cell proliferation.
We investigate translational approaches to repair or replace damaged airway tissue using cell- and gene-based therapies. This includes exploring how epithelial cells can be expanded, engineered, and delivered safely and effectively for regenerative applications.
We have developed a new method to expand epithelial basal cells ex vivo . As an initial application, we have focused on epidermolysis bullosa, where we demonstrated proof-of-concept for a combined cell and gene therapy approach.
Dr. Rob Hynds
Group Leader
Dr. Jess Orr
Postdoctoral Fellow
Drew Farr
PhD Student
Niamh McCarthy
PhD Student
Chloe Boswell
MRes Student
Sian Pepper
MRes Student
Chun Hang (Liam) Lau
Postdoc 2020-2023
Emily Kostina
MRes Student 2022-2023
Asma Laali
MSci Student 2023-2024
Olivia Lu
MSci Student 2023-2024
Buthainah Ahmed
MRes Student 2023-2025
Olivia Beresford
MSc Student 2024-2025
Marily Chasioti
MRes Student 2024-2025
Leslie Cheng
PhD Student 2023-2026
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We make tools, datasets, and protocols openly available to support airway epithelial biology and translational ENT research.
Plasmids and molecular tools developed in the lab for airway epithelial biology.
View plasmids →Analysis pipelines, code, and tools from our published and ongoing work.
Browse repositories →Publicly available transcriptomic and other sequencing datasets generated by the lab.
Explore datasets →
