Current Lab Members

Dr. Lowry

Principal Investigator

William Lowry, Ph.D., is the associate director of education and technology transfer at the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. In this role, he oversees the center's stem cell training program and guides center members through the licensing and patenting processes required to move discoveries made in the lab to the market. Lowry uses stem cells to study how the embryonic ectoderm splits into two distinct lineages of cell types: the neural cells that comprise the nervous system and the epidermal cells that make up the outer surface of the body including skin, hair and nails. He seeks to understand how this process can go awry, leading to intellectual disability syndromes such as autism in the case of neural cells, or a predisposition to cancers like carcinoma in the case of skin cells. Lowry uses pluripotent stem cells to generate in vitro models of human development and uncover the mechanisms by which cells acquire particular fates just after germ layer specification. Using an in vivo model of tissue homeostasis, he studies how hair follicle stem cells are transformed in cancer and whether this process mirrors development in reverse. His exploration of these processes led to the discovery that hair follicle stem cells appear to possess a unique metabolic profile. He is currently exploring how this distinct mode of metabolism plays a functional role in hair follicle stem cells' ability to both maintain tissue and serve as cancer cells-of-origin. longside fellow center member Heather Christofk, Ph.D., Lowry found that altering the metabolic processes of hair follicle stem cells can activate hair growth. This research may lead to new drugs that could help reverse hair loss for people experiencing baldness or alopecia. Lowry is applying these insights to determine if manipulating metabolic processes of hair follicle stem cells can stop the initiation and progression of skin cancers such as squamous cell carcinoma. Lowry also uses stem cell models of human development to uncover the mechanisms by which cells acquire particular fates after germ layer specification. This research is mainly focused on the neural lineage, where he seeks to identify mechanisms that can be used to promote developmental maturity in neurons derived from stem cells in a dish. He has identified several molecular pathways that can be manipulated to accelerate neuron maturation. Taking advantage of these discoveries will enable Lowry and others to generate more accurate models of — and discover treatments for — neurological conditions including degenerative brain diseases and intellectual disability syndromes.