We are delighted to share our progress in deriving airway basal cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) published online today in @CellStemCell. Brief general summary to follow! https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S1934-5909%2820%2930492-6

Basal cells are the major stem cell in our airways, capable of responding to injury by proliferating and differentiating into the specialized cell types, like mucus-secreting and ciliated cells, that we need for our airways to protect the gas-exchanging alveolar compartment.

We built a fluorescent iPSC reporter line that helped us identify basal cells as they emerged in culture and as a result we were able to develop culture conditions that efficiently specified cells very similar to human basal cells.

At the molecular and functional level these iPSC-derived cells are very similar to basal cells and we term them “ibasal cells”. The gene-expression of ibasal cells is similar to human basal cells. But their functional capacity is most interesting...

In air-liquid interface conditions, or in a tracheal xenograft transplant, ibasal cells were able to form a differentiated airway epithelium similar in appearance and composition of human airways.

From a practical perspective, ibasal cells share key properties with primary human basal cells. As a result, we extensively passage these cells in culture or cryopreserve them while maintaining their basal cell program and functional capacity.

The goal of this work is to improve our understanding of, and treatment options for, lung diseases. We applied basal cells to study asthma, cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia. Hopefully, this be a useful tool for the research community.

Finally, this was group effort and I am humbled to have worked with so many generous and talented scientists willing to share their time, resources and expertise. It is also very much on my mind after a year of COVID-19, ICU coverage, and lab shutdowns......

...it is ten years since I sat down as a pulmonary fellow in Darrell Kotton’s office and signed on to join his lab to make human lung epithelium from iPSCs. Also a special thanks co-first author Shingo Suzuki and the many generous collaborators .....

including @TheSpenceLab @gianni_carraro and Dr. Barry Stripp, @ScottHRandell and more (without twitter accounts). @BUPulmonary @Kottond @CReM_Boston