Desai Lab
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We are focused on understanding the causes of and working towards new molecular and cell-based treatments for lung diseases like cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, and COPD. We focus on lung stem cells and the molecular signals that regulate their activity to repair and regenerate lung tissue after injury.
Current News
May 2026
- Welcome to the lab, Zoey Yang, our new postdoc!
November 2025
- Congratulations to Nick on his LCRF Fellowship to detect pre-cancer in the lung!
July 2025
- Welcome to the lab, Isabela Maria-Fuentes, graduate student in Cancer Biology!
March 2025
- Jung-Ki's and Jason Guo's manuscript on lung fibrosis is out in Nature!
February 2025
- Congratulations to Ian on starting his Scientist position at Eleven P15!
December 2024
- Congratulations to Courtney on successfully defending her thesis!
October 2024
- Congratulations to Matt on his Stanford Cancer Institute Fellowship!
September 2024
- Welcome to Dan Su, our newest post-doc!
May 2024
- Welcome to Paulette Monroy Alfaro, our REACH post-bac scholar!
March 2024
- Congratulations to Nick on his Parker B. Francis Fellowship!
February 2024
- Congratulations to Jung-Ki on starting as Assistant Professor at Seoul National University!
November 2023
October 2023
- Congratulations to Matt on his award presentation at the 19th Annual Respiratory Disease Young Investigators’ Forum!
- Congratulations to Josh on his JCB paper!
August 2023
- We wish May well as she leaves to begin osteopathic medical school!
July 2023
- Nick’s manuscript on lepidic lung cancer is out!
- Congratulations to Jung-Ki for successfully defending his thesis!
We apply state of the art biotechnology to reveal how lungs are maintained during aging and repaired after injury, what goes wrong in disease, and how we can therapeutically intervene to restore health.