Rate My Professor Christos Samakovlis

Christos Samakovlis is Professor of Developmental Biology in the Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute at Stockholm University and Scientific Director of SciLifeLab. His research centers on the genetic and molecular mechanisms driving the development, maturation, and regeneration of branched tubular organs, including the lung, kidney, and vascular system. Employing the Drosophila tracheal system as a primary model, his laboratory integrates genetics, live-cell imaging, bioinformatics, and high-throughput screening to uncover regulators of epithelial tube size, apical secretion, liquid clearance, and organ function. Parallel investigations in mammalian systems utilize single-cell RNA sequencing, in situ transcriptomics, mouse genetics, lung slice imaging, and human bronchial cell cultures to delineate airway epithelial cell diversity, plasticity, stem cell dynamics, and fate regulators during homeostasis, injury, infection, and disease states such as cancer.

Central to his findings are signaling pathways like Wingless/Wnt, Hedgehog, FGFR, and receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) that orchestrate cell fate selection, polarization, and spatial organization along the proximal-distal axis. Notable publications include 'FGFR signaling establishes spatial gradients of secretory cell identities along the airway proximal-distal axis' (Nature Communications, 2026), 'Spatial single-cell atlas reveals regional variations in healthy and diseased human lung' (Nature Communications, 2025), 'High-parametric protein maps reveal the spatial organization in early-developing human lung' (Nature Communications, 2024), 'A topographic atlas defines developmental origins of cell heterogeneity in the human embryonic lung' (Nature Cell Biology, 2023), and 'Transient junction anisotropies orient annular cell polarization in the Drosophila airway tubes' (Nature Cell Biology, 2015). With over 13,000 citations, his work has profoundly influenced developmental cell biology and respiratory research. Samakovlis is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Class for Biosciences, and received the Göran Gustafsson Prize in Molecular Biology in 2007.