XiangXi Mike Xu
University of Miami, FL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Paclitaxel (Taxol) is a key chemotherapy drug for ovarian cancer and other solid tumors. For many patients, however, it causes severe hair loss, called alopecia, which can be psychologically devastating.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Biology
Pharmacology
- Topics
paclitaxel
Taxol
chemotherapy-induced alopecia
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2029
What they work on
- Determine how brief low intensity ultrasound affects the microtubule network of hair matrix keratinocytes and hair follicle epithelial stem cells exposed to paclitaxel, a drug that locks microtubules in place.
- Test whether low intensity ultrasound prevents paclitaxel from killing cells in human scalp hair follicles kept alive in organ culture.
- Test whether ultrasound treatment protects mouse hair follicles from paclitaxel damage in living animals and develop an approach to prevent paclitaxel-induced hair loss in mice.
More about the research
The drug works by locking microtubules in place. Microtubules are protein fibers that cells need in order to divide. Hair matrix keratinocytes, the fast-dividing cells that build the hair shaft, are hit hard. They die, the hair follicle becomes damaged, and it may lose its ability to regrow. Scalp cooling can reduce this hair loss for some patients, but its benefit is limited and unpredictable.
Why it matters
Patients receiving paclitaxel or other microtubule-stabilizing drugs for ovarian and other cancers often suffer short-term or even permanent hair loss. Low intensity ultrasound is already widely used in medicine and has a strong safety record. If it can protect hair follicle cells from the drug, it could become a practical way to prevent chemotherapy-induced alopecia and improve patients' quality of life.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jixin Dong
University of Nebraska Medical Center, NE·Pharmacology
Establish in animal models whether protein kinase R, an enzyme best known in antiviral immunity, determines how tumors respond to antitubulin drugs such as paclitaxel.
Pooja Flora
University of California-Riverside, CA·Biology·Early-career
Characterize how gene expression and chromatin accessibility change with age across the distinct stem cell pools of adult skin, including basal interfollicular epithelial stem cells and hair follicle bulge stem cells, using multi-omics profiling.
Yejing Ge
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, TX·Genetics
Define how DNA methylation and histone methylation silence retrotransposons in adult mouse skin, using genetic mice that lack a key epigenetic repressor of these repeats.
The school
University of Miami: 30 labs on PI Pages, $559M a year on research, 297 research doctorates a year.
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