Angela Christiano

Angela M. Christiano is a molecular geneticist in the field of dermatology. Her research focuses on genes involved in hair and skin growth, as well as treatments for hair loss and skin cancers.[1] She is the Richard and Mildred Rhodebeck Professor of Dermatology and Professor of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Angela M. Christiano
Alma mater
AwardsNational Academy of Sciences
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsColumbia University
ThesisThe human tropoelastin gene: Allelic heterogeneity, evolutionary divergence, identification of restriction fragment length polymorphisms and linkage analyses in families with pseudoxanthoma elasticum
Doctoral advisorCharles D. Boyd

Education and early career

Christiano attended Nutley High School in Nutley, New Jersey.[2] She attended Douglass College, a women-only residential college within Rutgers University-New Brunswick, earning her Bachelor of Science degree in 1987.[3] She continued her scientific training at Rutgers University, earning her Master of Science in Molecular Pathology and Doctor of Philosophy in Genetics. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Jefferson Medical College Department of Dermatology, Christiano focused on genetic blistering skin diseases.[4]

Research

Christiano established her laboratory at Columbia University in 1996.[4]

Genes driving alopecia areata

Alopecia areata is an autoimmune disease where a patient's immune cells attack their own hair follicles, causing hair to fall out in clumps. In collaboration with the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF), Christiano and her group were able to compare genomes between patients and healthy control individuals.[4]

In 2009, Christiano and her group published the discovery of 139 genetic markers linked to alopecia areata.[4] Although many expected that genes involved in alopecia would also be involved in other inherited hair and skin diseases, they found that genes linked to alopecia were linked to other types of autoimmune diseases instead: type-1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and celiac disease.[4]

Potential implications for cancer therapy

In patients with alopecia, one of the genes that are hyperactive is IKZF1, which results in overproduction of immune cells that subsequently attack hair follicles. In contrast, many cancer cells escape detection and elimination by immune cells. Scientists in the Christiano Lab were able to activate IKZF1 in certain cancer types, e.g. melanoma, and suppress tumor growth.[5]

Strategies for growing human hair

In addition to her efforts in understanding the genetics behind alopecia, Christiano is also researching ways to treat it and other types of hair loss. Most therapies focus on stopping or slowing down hair loss, while hair transplantation simply moves one part of the scalp to another. Christiano's goal is to grow human hair in lab settings that could be then transplanted onto human scalp with minimal scarring. Although mouse and rat hair easily grow in lab, the methods do not work as well when growing human hair.[6] In 2013, Christiano and her group adapted the hanging drop cell culture technique to grow human cells that successfully grew human hair when transplanted onto the backs of nude mice.[7][8][9][10] In 2015, Christiano and her group found that a class of drugs called JAK inhibitors promoted hair follicles to enter growth phase.[11][12] In 2019, Christiano and colleagues developed a "hair farm", using a 3D-printed scaffold as a microenvironment to grow human skin cells and produce hair.[13][14][15]

Honors and awards

Personal life

Christiano is the first member in her family to attend college and graduate school.[4] Hair has been an integral part of her family, as her grandfather was a barber and her mother was retired hairdresser.[4] In her first year of establishing her lab, Christiano started experiencing hair loss and was diagnosed with alopecia areata.[4] While it was known that alopecia areata is genetic, it was not well understood which genes were involved and how they worked. Christiano decided to use her scientific training to address this gap in knowledge.[4]

References
  1. "Her Bald Spot Spurred Scientific Breakthrough". New Jersey Monthly. 2019-11-08. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  2. "2011 Hall of Fame Inductee, Angela Christiano". Nutley Hall of Fame. 2014-01-14. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  3. "Dr. Angela Christiano DC'87 Elected to National Academy of Sciences | Douglass Residential College". douglass.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
  4. Dreifus, Claudia (2010-12-27). "Living and Studying Alopecia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  5. "Harnessing hair loss gene could improve cancer immunotherapy". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  6. Barshad, Amos. "Is the Age-Old Quest for a Baldness Cure Reaching Its End?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  7. Jernigan, Joy (2013-10-22). "New research shows promise for reversing baldness". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  8. "From a mouse's back: hair restoration hope". Hartford Business Journal. October 22, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  9. Grady, Denise (2013-10-21). "New Technique Holds Promise for Hair Growth". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  10. "Baldness cure a step closer with promising new treatment". www.medicalnewstoday.com. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  11. Fox, Maggie (2015-10-23). "Cancer drug could be baldness remedy, too". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  12. "JAK inhibitor promotes hair growth in both men, women with androgenetic alopecia". www.healio.com. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  13. Feder, Shira (2019-07-03). "Scientists Have Uncovered a New Tool to Combat Baldness: a 3-D Printer". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  14. Hamblin, James (2019-07-25). "Soon There Will Be Unlimited Hair". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  15. "Researchers use 3D printing to combat hair loss". 3Dnatives. 2019-07-15. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  16. "2020 NAS Election". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
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