Lung Mural Cells

Overview

Mural cells — pericytes and smooth muscle cells — wrap around blood vessels in the lung and play critical roles in regulating blood flow and maintaining vascular structure. This project investigates how these cells change during lung development and in response to hyperoxia (high oxygen conditions).

Approach

I wrote Python tools to analyze imaging and transcriptomic data from lung tissue, enabling quantitative comparison of mural cell populations across developmental stages and oxygen conditions. The computational pipeline processes large datasets to identify shifts in cell type, distribution, and gene expression.

Significance

Understanding how mural cells respond to hyperoxia is relevant to pulmonary hypertension and neonatal lung disease. By mapping these changes computationally, we aim to identify potential therapeutic targets.