Professor Christopher Lucas

My lab is interested in the immunology of tissue regeneration within the injured lung.

Professor of Pulmonary Immunity & Regeneration / Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine

Centre for Inflammation Research
Institute for Regeneration and Repair

Contact details

Email: christopher.lucas@ed.ac.uk

Web: Academic profile

Research overview

Lungs are continually exposed to infections, airborne toxins and allergens, which frequently lead to cell death of the internal lining of the lungs, the epithelium. Widespread epithelial damage compromises lung function and occurs in multiple lung diseases including in fatal lung injury. It is therefore vital that the lung can successfully repair and regenerate itself to ensure optimum functioning and protect against infections. But the regeneration process remains poorly understood, functions abnormally in several human lung conditions, and no existing treatments promote lung regeneration.

We have found that correct functioning of the immune response is critical for successful lung regeneration. Within tissues macrophages act as ‘professional phagocytes’ with rapid and efficient dead cell uptake and digestion capacity. After lung injury macrophages expand in numbers, frequently interact with dead and dying cells, and are critical for lung epithelial regeneration. But what sort of macrophage promotes epithelial regeneration and the mechanisms they use to achieve this are not yet understood. By studying how the immune response assists with tissue regeneration we aim to develop new treatments that promote successful lung repair after serious infection or damage.

Group members

Thibaut Sanchez, Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Tamara Sneperger, Postdoctoral Research Assistant (co-mentored with Dr Steve Jenkins and Professor Will Wood)

Katie Tse, PhD Student

Verity Cowell, PhD student

Anna Davey, PhD Student (co-mentored with Dr CJ Anderson)

Biographical Profile

I undertook my Medical Degree and a BSc (Hons) in Physiology at the University of Edinburgh. I subsequently completed a Wellcome-trust funded ECAT PhD, focusing on mechanisms of cell death and impacts upon tissue inflammation. Upon completion of clinical training in Respiratory Medicine and award of a Wellcome Trust Fellowship I moved to Kodi Ravichandran’s lab at the University of Virginia, USA, to study cell death and tissue repair in the injured lung. In 2020 I established my research group at the University of Edinburgh, focusing on immune-epithelial crosstalk and how this regulates tissue biology and epithelial cell regeneration after injury. In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic I established ICECAP (Inflammation in COVID-19 – Exploration of Critical Aspects of Pathogenesis), a UKRI funded collaborative project to collect and analyse tissues from fatal COVID-19 focusing on delineation of tissue immunopathology. I am an Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, NHS Lothian, where I am the Academic Lead for Asthma. I hold an MRC Clinician Scientist personal fellowship investigating mechanisms of macrophage-epithelial crosstalk that promote epithelial regeneration. I am Group Leader at the Institute for Regeneration & Repair, and Chair of Pulmonary Immunity & Regeneration.