How tissues build, maintain, and lose their cellular neighborhoods

Every tissue is a community of cells that has to stay organized for decades while its members die and are replaced. We study the immune cells that hold those communities together, and what happens when they fail with age or injury. Our goal is to learn the cellular logic that governs tissue composition and function, and to use it to explain why some wounds regenerate while others scar.

The Mesa Lab is part of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University.