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Welcome
This is a research laboratory in the Department of Pathology in the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. The major research subject is developmental biology of epithelial organ formation. The applicational side is tissue engineering, namely how to guide epithelial stem cells to form different epithelial organs: e.g. feather, hair, liver, mammary gland. |
What's new?
"New 'dermal clock' signaling coordinates stem cell activity in a population of hair follicles" - novel cyclic signaling in the dermis coordinates stem cell activity and regulates regeneration in large populations of hairs in animal models. The signaling switch involves bone morphogenetic protein (Bmp) pathway
Plikus MV, Mayer JA, de la Cruz D, Baker RE, Maini PK, Maxson R, Chuong CM.
Cyclic dermal BMP signalling regulates stem cell activation during hair regeneration. Nature, 451:340-4, 2008
USC News Release - "USC study in Nature sheds light on stem cell signaling"
Report in Business Weekly - "A Protein That Makes Hair Do the Wave"
"Regenerative biology: new hair from healing wounds" - "In mammals, most wounds heal by repair, not regeneration. It now seems that, as they heal, open skin wounds in adult mice form new hair follicles that follow similar developmental paths to those of embryos".
Cheng-Ming Chuong.
Nature. 2007
"The Turing Model Comes of Molecular Age" - "Molecular analyses of hair follicle formation provide evidence that a developmental system operates according to a mathematical model of patterning in chemistry".
Philip K. Maini, Ruth E. Baker, Cheng-Ming Chuong.
Perspectives in Science. 2006
"Dots versus stripes in feather patterning" - One o fthe 13 stories chosen by Am. Soc. Cell Biology from 1277 abstracts.
Embryonic patterning
makes the feathers fly.
Novel and Newsworthy. 2006
"Wnt 3a gradient and feather symmetry" The development of bilateral symmetry in bird flight feathers depends on a graded expression of signaling molecule, Wnt3a. Elimination of this graded distribution leads to change from bilateral to radial symmetric feathers. The work has implication in organ designs.
"Feather stem cells:"
Feather is an organ with robust regenerative ability in the adult
animal. Discovery of feather stem cells helps to explain feather growth, feather
molting, and different feather forms. It also offers new understanding in stem
cell biology and may lead to clues for human organ
regeneration in the future.
Yue ZC, Jiang TX, Widelitz RB, Chuong CM. Making the
paper. The inside track on how feathers are regenerated. 2005. Nature 438:Xiii.
Nature Podcast Dec 15 2005. The whole podcast is 30 min. Interview with Dr. Chuong starts at 19:40
Mapping Stem Cell Activities in the
Feather Follicle. 2005 Nature 438: 1026-1029
"Molecular Shaping of the Beak"
report researches the role of Bmp4 in the development of chicken and duck beaks.
It provides clues of the molecular basis for size variations in the beaks of Galapagos finches'.
Science commentary:
"Bonemaking Protein Shapes Beaks of Darwin’s Finches"
Science, online publication, Sep 03, 2004.
Plikus M, Chuong CM. Making waves with hairs. J Invest Dermatol. 2004 Apr;122(4):vii-ix.
Correspondence:
Cheng-Ming Chuong, M.D., Ph.D.
Keck School of Medicine, Dept. of Pathology
2011 Zonal Ave HMR 313 B
Los Angeles, CA 90033
TEL: (323) 442-1296
FAX: (323) 442-3049
E mail: chuong@pathfinder.usc.edu