Hsu Lab
Principal Investigator: Ya-Chieh Hsu
Institution: Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Accepting PhD Students ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
Project Summary Skin stem cells are heavily influenced by signals from their niches including different fibroblasts populations. While our ability to isolate and molecularly profile diverse cell types has improved drastically in the past decade, a major roadblock in identifying key genes driving stem cell-niche interactions is the lengthy process of generating the genetic models needed (e.g., cell-type specific Cre or CreER, and overexpression or knockout mouse lines) to test gene functions in a cell-type specific manner in a physiologically relevant context. As such, while many different cell types have been identified and molecularly profiled, the critical genes that drive many developmental and regeneration processes remain incompletely understood. This substantial knowledge gap presents a significant impediment to developing therapies for skin diseases. To address this gap and to showcase how rapid functional genetics can enable new discoveries in stem cell- niche interactions, we will first build adeno-associated viral (AAV) toolkits to expand the field’s capacity for rapid functional genetics in multiple dermal cell types in mice. This aim expands on our current success in us…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R01AR080110-05: Rapid functional genetics to study stem cell-niche interactions in the skin (2026)
- 5R01AR083416-03: Aging and Rejuvenation of Skin Stem Cells (2026)
- 5R01AR084566-03: Mechanisms of Fetal Skin Regeneration (2026)
- 5R01AR083416-02: Aging and Rejuvenation of Skin Stem Cells (2025)
- 5R01AR084566-02: Mechanisms of Fetal Skin Regeneration (2025)
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