Research Overview

Skin is the largest organ in the body and the first line of defence against harmful microbes. A better understanding towards skin in health and disease is important, as skin disorders are extremely common. It has been estimated that approximately 900 million people in the world are affected by skin disorders at any time.

Skin is a complex tissue comprised of a range of distinct cell types, which can make the interpretation of high-throughput experimental data from skin difficult. In addition to having previously derived genes associated with various cell types within skin through coexpression network analysis using RNA sequencing (RNAseq) data from normal skin, I have characterised gene expression patterns associated with the formation of skin appendages (hair follicles and fingerprints) during development using single-cell RNA sequencing. I am particularly interested in the interaction between cells or host-microbes at a single-cell level with spatial context. A better understanding of how genes contribute to different physiological states of the skin will significantly benefit the interpretation of data in dermatological research.

My group is interested in improving our understanding towards gene expression changes in skin in development, health, perturbed physiology (pigmentation, wound healing, and aging), disease (chronic wounds, non-communicable skin diseases, and melanoma), and different species.

The work my group does is predominately bioinformatics-based; we have experience in a range of techniques, including but not limited to single-cell RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, microbiome analysis, network analysis and data visualisation.