William Lowry
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Biology
How does a cell's way of burning fuel decide whether it stays dormant or starts dividing? Hair follicle stem cells are a good place to ask this question.
- Fields
Biology
Biochemistry
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
hair follicle stem cells
stem cell quiescence
stem cell activation
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Mar 2030
What they work on
- Test whether raised glutaminolysis, the breakdown of glutamine for fuel, keeps hair follicle stem cells dormant when they lack lactate dehydrogenase (Ldh), using gain- and loss-of-function targeting of metabolic steps.
- Determine whether lactate itself acts as a signaling molecule that tells hair follicle stem cells to activate and start a new hair cycle.
- Test whether L-2-hydroxyglutarate (L2HG), an alternate Ldh product that can alter enzymes controlling epigenetic state and gene expression, is the key metabolite driving stem cell activation.
- Examine whether Ldh activity and mitochondrial pyruvate oxidation also control whether hair follicle stem cells initiate tumors, using an established squamous cell carcinoma model.
- Develop programs through the CRTEC training unit that draw K-12, undergraduate and community college students into cancer research, and track trainee outcomes to improve programs.
More about the research
These cells regrow hair, help heal wounds, and can be the cells from which squamous cell carcinoma, a common skin cancer, begins. Understanding how their metabolism controls their behavior could explain both normal tissue renewal and how tumors start. Alongside this research, Lowry co-directs a cancer center program that trains future cancer researchers, from K-12 students to junior faculty.
Why it matters
Hair follicle stem cells drive hair growth and wound repair and can give rise to squamous cell carcinoma. Learning how metabolic enzymes such as lactate dehydrogenase switch these cells on could point to ways of promoting hair regrowth or wound healing. It could also suggest metabolic steps to target to prevent skin tumors from starting. The training program aims to widen access to cancer research careers for K-12, community college and university students.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yuxuan Miao
University of Chicago, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Use in vivo CRISPR screens and stem cell interactome sensors in mouse skin to find how epithelial stem cells remodel nearby immune cells into a temporary protective niche after wounding.
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.
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.
The school
University of California-Los Angeles: 84 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 803 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.