Brian Lin

My major research interests focus on airway epithelium (respiratory and olfactory) stem cell dynamics, where tissue resident stem cells continually provide regenerative capacity to barrier tissues that are directly in contact with the external environment. In the olfactory epithelium, one of the few locations where human adult neurogenesis occurs, I leverage diverse mouse models ranging from genetic lineage tracing, gene ablation, CRISPR transgenesis, and transplantation assays to study the control of stem cell fates, so that they can be manipulated towards therapeutic goals. In upper airway respiratory epithelium, I am using a powerful in-vitro model to study the stem cell dynamics of respiratory epithelium that enables faster and more precise genetic manipulation using CRISPR-activation, inactivation, and tet-on inducible systems. Synergistically, I am interested in expanding our pre-existing in-vitro models of olfactory epithelium to generate a bona fide sensory epithelium in-vitro to enable future therapeutic discovery.