From the Lab
Decoding Cellular Dialogue Across Scales
Alveolar tissue (EM)
AT2 and AT1 cells
Alveolosphere organoid
AT1
We decode the molecular dialogue between stem cells and their microenvironment — and leverage these discoveries to re-wire cellular crosstalk in fibrosis, cancer, and degenerative disease.
Explore our research ↓
Communication between stem cells and their niche is foundational for the collective cell behaviors of tissue repair and regeneration. The variable regenerative capacity across species is often dictated by differential stem-niche communication, highlighting vast therapeutic potential.
Yet therapeutic efforts that broadly modulated stem-niche signaling show limited success and high toxicity — underscoring the urgent need for new pharmacological strategies. Our lab is thematically centered on defining the molecules and principles of stem-niche communication that shape tissue regeneration, and how these are dysregulated in fibrosis and cancer.
We aim to leverage our discoveries to re-wire this cellular crosstalk as a precision-medicine strategy in chronic and malignant disease.
Across the animal kingdom, Wnt-β-catenin signaling specifies and regulates a multitude of stem cells, and rewiring Wnt enables greater regenerative potential in the kidney, lung, and other organs. Yet the ubiquitous activity of Wnt results in a vanishingly narrow therapeutic window in drug development.
We propose the “Wnt Code Hypothesis” — that differential activation is achieved by cell-specific expression of Frizzled (Fzd) receptors, which can be selectively activated by distinct Wnt ligands, offering a path to precision Wnt therapeutics.
We have developed functional genomic platforms that enable unbiased genetic dissection of AT2 stem cells — the cell of origin for lung adenocarcinoma and pulmonary fibrosis.
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology · UC Berkeley
Ahmad is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at UC Berkeley, where his lab studies the molecular logic of stem cell–niche communication and its role in tissue regeneration, fibrosis, and cancer. His work integrates cell biology, functional genomics, and organoid systems to decode — and ultimately rewire — the signaling dialogues that govern tissue homeostasis.
Ahmad completed his PhD at Stanford University in the Biochemistry Department, where he trained with Mark Krasnow and Tushar Desai. His doctoral work identified the single-cell Wnt signaling niches that maintain alveolar stem cell identity (Science, 2018) and contributed to the Human Lung Cell Atlas (Nature, 2020). He then pursued postdoctoral training at Genentech with Vishva Dixit, where he leveraged novel approaches in antibody engineering, CRISPR functional genomics in lung organoids and basic discovery to develop a new precision regenerative therapy for degenerative diseases (Cell, 2023).
Ahmad’s research has been recognized with a Pew-Stewart Cancer Fellowship and a Genentech Career Transition Award.
