First person – Helen Molteni

ABSTRACT First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Helen Molteni is first author on ‘A small-molecule screen identifies that elafibranor links mechanical cues and Irf6-dependent epithelial differentiation’, published in DMM. Helen is a Craniofacial Surgeon-Scientist Training Fellow in the lab of Eric Liao at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA, investigating genetic drivers of orofacial clefts, emphasizing the role of epithelial differentiation genes in midface development.