Affiliation: University of New South Wales

I initiated the molecular and integrative Cystic Fibrosis (miCF) Research program in August 2016 at UNSW, Sydney, Australia. My laboratory has established a bioresource of matched airway and gut organoids from people with cystic fibrosis. To date, we have created primary airway cells from over 200 CF patients, 50 of which have matched gut organoids. We implemented a multi-analytical platform of in silico molecular dynamics simulations, in vitro organoid-based CFTR functional assays and an array of ‘omics technologies’ to understand epithelial developmental and the role aberrant processes play in progression and pathophysiology of CF disease. My current research has a strong translational focus in three key areas of (i) stem cell biology involving disease modeling (ii) prognostic and diagnostic exosomal biomarker discovery for CF related diabetes, and (iii) CFTR restoring therapeutics in patient derived organoids using a variety of delivery approaches.