PhD student
University of Geneva, Switzerland
Tahir Idris is a final year PhD student in the department of cell physiology and metabolism at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Our group believe that there is a defect in the proliferation and polarization process of the Cystic Fibrosis airway epithelium that results in loss of polarity, defects in the structural integrity and ultimately, bacterial infections. My PhD project is aimed at investigating the signaling pathways that regulate the proliferation and polarization process in CF and we discovered that there is aberrant signaling of both the Wnt and TGFBeta signaling pathways in the absence of CFTR. We therefore believe that these pathways can provide tools in the understanding of the initiation and progression of the CF disease.