Investigators: Anthony Kicic, Stephen Stick
External collaborators: Clin. A/Prof. Shyan Vijayasekaran, School of Paediatrics and Child Health UWA
The cells lining the airways in the lungs are called epithelial cells. Once thought to be a simple barrier to the external environment, epithelial cells are involved in many repair and inflammatory processes that occur in childhood airway diseases. However, most research has been done in epithelial cells obtained from adults and may not reflect what happens in the airways of children.
Our aim is to set up a program to obtain epithelial cells from children. This will enable us to understand how these cells behave in early childhood respiratory diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis, how they respond to different types of infection, and to identify new therapies to prevent or reduce childhood respiratory disease.