Breakthrough in group of Longfonds funded researcher Sam Janes

Proof found that healthy cells in the lung can expand to replace damaged cells

Sam Janes and colleagues published today a finding in the journal Nature that shows when you give up smoking the lung airways can repair themselves with cells that show no sign of smoking damage. For lung cancer this is important because the new cells do not form cancer. Importantly, for the first time this clearly demonstrates that there is a stem cell in the lung that is protected from smoking damage and can expand to replace damaged cells. This breakthrough is of great importance for further research by Sam Janes and other Lung Foundation Netherlands funded researchers to understand more about these cells and whether they can be harnessed to repair the lung faster. Perhaps not only protecting against cancer, but also repairing the damaged lung from other diseases. 

Sam Janes, professor at University College London, leads one of the four LONGFONDS | Accelerate research groups on lung regeneration
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