Tien Peng, MD

Associate Professor In Res
Pulmonary and Critical Care Division
Research Overview: 

Adult solid organs are composed of diverse cellular compartments with complex 3D organization that informs specific functions, with varying degrees of regenerative capacity in response to injury and tissue loss.  While resident tissue stem cells play an important role in the regenerative process, they are located within a cellular ecosystem (or “niche”) composed of various cell types that regulate stem cell function.  The Peng Lab is interested in how supportive niche cells modify the regenerative capacity of the stem cell, with the goal of deciphering cellular crosstalk that drives adaptive tissue regeneration. Our lab utilizes the lung as a model organ due to its immense cellular diversity and architectural complexity. 

Interested BMS/DSCB grad students are always welcome for lab rotations. Possible rotating projects include:

1. Establishment of organoid culture system to study tissue-tissue interaction. Our lab is interested in dissecting paracrine interactions that maintain normal tissue homeostasis, and modeling these behaviors in vitro. We have established organoid culture systems to study how various mesenchymal niches support epithelial survival and differentiation. The goal is to identify mesenchymal-derived factors that regulate epithelial progenitor behavior and vice versa.

2. Developing single-cell pipelines to dissect mesenchymal heterogeneity. We are focused on understanding how certain developmental pathways subdivide mesenchymal populations based on location and function. We are performing single-cell RNA sequencing using both the Drop-Seq and C1 Fluidigm platform to better understand how mesenchymal transcriptomes segregate based on location and cellular behavior.

3. Characterizing accelerated aging models. We have developed genetic tools to accelerate aging in the mesenchymal compartment in a temporal and spatially-selective manner. The goal is to identify tissue responses to the aging mesenchymal niche and evaluate factors that drive the aging phenotype.

Primary Thematic Area: 
Developmental & Stem Cell Biology
Secondary Thematic Area: 
Vascular & Cardiac Biology
Research Summary: 
Contribution of mesenchymal niche to homeostasis, repair, and aging

Websites

Publications: 

An in vivo screening platform identifies senolytic compounds that target p16INK4a+ fibroblasts in lung fibrosis.

The Journal of clinical investigation

Lee JY, Reyes NS, Ravishankar S, Zhou M, Krasilnikov M, Ringler C, Pohan G, Wilson C, Ang KK, Wolters PJ, Tsukui T, Sheppard D, Arkin MR, Peng T

In vivo protein turnover rates in varying oxygen tensions nominate MYBBP1A as a mediator of the hyperoxia response.

Science advances

Chen X, Haribowo AG, Baik AH, Fossati A, Stevenson E, Chen YR, Reyes NS, Peng T, Matthay MA, Traglia M, Pico AR, Jarosz DF, Buchwalter A, Ghaemmaghami S, Swaney DL, Jain IH

Bad Neighbors or Bad Neighborhoods: Pathogenic Residency of T Cells in COPD.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine

Peng T

Single-nuclei characterization of pervasive transcriptional signatures across organs in response to COVID-19.

eLife

COVID Tissue Atlas Consortium, Granados AA, Bucher S, Song H, Agrawal A, Chen AT, Peng T, Neff N, Pisco AO, Huang F, Wang B

Group 2 innate lymphoid cells constrain type 3/17 lymphocytes in shared stromal niches to restrict liver fibrosis.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology

Sbierski-Kind J, Cautivo KM, Wagner JC, Dahlgren MW, Nilsson J, Krasilnikov M, Mroz NM, Lizama CO, Gan AL, Matatia PR, Taruselli MT, Chang AA, Caryotakis S, O'Leary CE, Kotas M, Mattis AN, Peng T, Locksley RM, Molofsky AB