Ryan Driskell
Washington State University, WA·Biology
Embryonic skin can heal wounds without scars, but adult skin cannot. Scars limit movement, can be painful and cause psychological distress.
- Fields
Biology
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
skin regeneration
scarless wound healing
scarring
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Test whether Lef1, a Wnt-pathway transcription factor, is the master regulator of newborn papillary fibroblast function by switching it on in adult mouse skin fibroblasts and using wounding and chamber grafting assays to see if scarring gives way to regeneration.
- Define the downstream pathways through which Lef1 specifies regenerative papillary fibroblast functions, using ChIP-seq to map Lef1 binding and single-cell RNA sequencing in regenerative transgenic mouse models.
- Determine whether Lef1 can safely restore papillary fibroblast identity and function in aged skin by testing skin regeneration and aging signs in old transgenic mice with reprogrammed fibroblasts.
More about the research
Scarring also underlies conditions such as scleroderma, diabetic ulcers and keloids. The key may lie in fibroblasts, the cells that build the skin's supportive tissue. A special type, papillary fibroblasts, sits just beneath the skin surface in embryonic and newborn skin and supports regeneration. These cells are lost as skin matures and ages.
Why it matters
Scars affect anyone who has surgery or a burn. They also mark diseases such as scleroderma, diabetic ulcers, psoriasis and keloids. Learning whether one embryonic factor, Lef1, can make adult skin heal without scarring could reveal new molecular and cellular targets for regenerating skin and other organs. It could also inform conditions involving dysfunctional fibroblasts, including arthritis and some cancers.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Shervin Assassi
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine how much removing Irf7 specifically from fibroblasts reduces skin fibrosis, in bleomycin-induced and Tsk1 mouse models of dermal fibrosis.
Eran Andrechek
Michigan State University, MI·Genetics
Characterize mammary gland defects in mice lacking E2F5 only in mammary epithelial cells, including duct extension during puberty, alveolar development and involution.
Qing Lin
Ohio State University, OH·Microbiology & Immunology
Test whether turning Mrgprb2 signaling, a mast-cell surface receptor pathway, up or down changes skin scarring and regeneration, using gene-modified mouse lines in wound healing models.
The school
Washington State University: 22 labs on PI Pages, $403M a year on research, 259 research doctorates a year.
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