Determining how CD4+ T cells regulate adult liver stem cells during regeneration

Immune cells are directing the liver's own stem cells to repair damage during chronic disease, and researchers want to know exactly how they do it. The liver normally heals itself by having mature hepatocytes divide. But in chronic liver injury—caused by conditions like cirrhosis or hepatitis—that process fails. Instead, cells in the bile ducts step in, transforming into new hepatocytes. No one knows what controls this switch. This project will identify which immune cells cluster near bile ducts during injury and how they trigger the regeneration process. If the research succeeds, it could lead to drugs that boost the liver's natural repair capacity, reducing the need for transplants in the millions of people worldwide with chronic liver disease. The work is fundamental science—it will first map the cellular conversations between immune cells and bile-duct stem cells in human tissue models. Past discoveries in liver regeneration have already led to therapies for acute liver failure; this project targets the more common, slower-burning damage that currently has no cure.