Published on today's Nature Genetics, Prof. Bin Zhou's research group from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology revealed the bona fide role of bronchioalveolar stem cells (BASC) during lung repair and regeneration. 

Prof. Zhou's team generated a dual lineage-tracing system by using Dre and Cre double recombinase to fate-map CC10+ SPC+ BASCs during lung maintenance and after bronchiolar or alveolar injuries. The lineage tracing data provides genetic evidence for the in vivo function of BASCs and their multipotency for lung repair and regeneration. SMOC produced two mouse strains R26-RSR-LSL-tdTomato and Scgb1a1-CreER(CC10-CreER) for this ground-breaking study.