Lemonia is a developmental biologist interested at how epithelial tissues are formed, how they repair and how abnormal re-activation of developmental programs can lead to cancer. She obtained her PhD at King’s College London where she investigated the role of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions in branching morphogenesis and regeneration of salivary glands in Prof Abigail Tucker’s lab. She then moved to Cambridge as a postdoc in the group of Prof Benjamin Simons to study how the activation of common developmental signals in the adult stomach could initiate tumour formation. Her interest in organ development led her to undertake a parallel project in the lab of Prof Benjamin Simons as a Herschel Smith postdoctoral fellow where she combined statistical and experimental approaches to trace the cellular dynamics driving salivary gland branching morphogenesis and tumour initiation. Currently, Lemonia is developing a novel human foetal SG organoid system that could be used to study human salivary gland development and disease.