Currently the main focus of my research is in the epithelial cells that line the small intestine and the colon. I am working on to understand how these populations of cells behave in physiological self-renewal (BBRC 2012, PLoS One 2013) or in the process of carcinogenesis (BBRC 2013, PLoS One 2014 in press) and inflammatory responses (BBRC 2013). Recently my research group has developed a 3-D culture method for colonic epithelial cells. Furthermore, we have shown that the colonic stem cells cultured using this protocol are capable of regenerating normal epithelia when transplanted in mice (Nat Med 2012). By extending this approach, we have shown that, in collaboration with the lab of Kim Jensen, fetal intestinal progenitors can also be grafted to colonic tissues in part adapting to the recipients’ colonic milieu (Cell Stem Cell 2013). My research group is further studying how transplanted cells form well-polarized epithelial tissues when transplanted, maintaining their original segmental identity or showing the plasticity to differentiate across their original lineages.