Lab News
July 12, 2022
See our psychosocial outcomes after facial feminization surgery picked up by the news
We are so excited to announce that our paper on psychosocial outcomes after facial feminization surgery was just published ahead of print in Annals of Surgery! This paper was a multi-year effort and part of a larger prospective longitudinal study on the mental health outcomes following facial feminization surgery. Our major findings were that 7 out of 11 mental health quality of life measures were improved in transgender patients who received gender-affirming facial feminization surgery. As the literature has been quite deficient in evidence related to quality-of-life changes following FFS, access to care under health insurance has been a challenge. We're hoping that this initial work will help!
Full Paper at Annals of Surgery: Effect of Gender-affirming Facial Feminization Surgery on Psychosocial Outcomes.
Many thanks to the following for picking up this story and helping us spread the word!
July 22, 2021
Thai food and R01s go well together!
An entire year after receiving our second R01, we finally got to see the entire team in person to celebrate with lunch! Also, a welcome to our newest members of the lab:
Dr. Meiwand Bedar (postdoctoral fellow), Dillon Dejam (medical student/research fellow), Kelly Huang (undergraduate researcher), Natalie Dahan (research assistant)
Also a sendoff to Dr. Lori Zhou, hope to see you back soon!
February 21, 2020
Panda Trash Talks on Instagram
Recently, our usually mild-mannered and silent office panda has decided that he will be silent no more. His skillz will not be ignored. #pandatrashtalk asdfggsadfadsfadsf
May 21, 2019
We made the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Cover!!
Xiaoyan Ren, Qi Zhou, David Foulad, Marley J. Dewey, David Bischoff, Timothy A. Miller, Dean T. Yamaguchi, Brendan A.C. Harley, Justine C. Lee
First published: 25 February 2019
https://doi.org/10.1002/term.2834
The ability of the extracellular matrix (ECM) to direct cell fate has generated the potential for developing a materials‐only strategy for tissue regeneration. Previously, we described a nanoparticulate mineralized collagen glycosaminoglycan (MC‐GAG) material that efficiently induced osteogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and calvarial bone healing without exogenous growth factors or progenitor cell expansion. In this work, we evaluated the interactions between MC‐GAG and primary human osteoclasts (hOCs). In the absence of hMSCs, mineralized Col‐GAG materials directly inhibited hOC viability, proliferation, and resorption in contrast to nonmineralized Col‐GAG, which demonstrated a modest inhibition of resorptive activity only. Cocultures containing differentiating hMSCs with hOCs demonstrated increased hOC‐mediated resorption only on Col‐GAG while MC‐GAG cocultures continued to inhibit resorption. Unlike Col‐GAG, hMSCs on MC‐GAG expressed increased amounts of osteoprotegerin (OPG) protein, the major endogenous osteoclast inhibitor. Interestingly, OPG expression was found to be antagonized by small mothers against decapentaplegic1/5 (Smad1/5) phosphorylation, an obligate pathway for osteogenic differentiation of hMSCs on MC‐GAG, and potentiated by extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK1/2) phosphorylation. Collectively, these results suggested that the MC‐GAG material both directly inhibited the osteoclast viability, proliferation, and resorptive activity as well as induced hMSCs to secrete osteoprotegerin, an antiosteoclastogenic factor, via a signalling pathway distinct from osteogenic differentiation.
May 13, 2019
ACPA recognizes 2019 award winners from the Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal. Dr. Lee Wins the Steward Rood Section Editor of the Year!
The winners were recognized on April 13, 2019 during ACPA’s 76thAnnual Meeting in Tucson, Arizona.
The 2019 award winners are:
- Peer Reviewer of the Year
Emily Gallagher, MD, MPH - Samuel Berkowitz, DDS, MS Long-Term Outcomes Study Award
Secondary Alveolar Bone Grafting in Patients Born with Unilateral Cleft Lip and Palate: A 20 Year Follow-up, Fatemeh Jabbari, DDS, PhD and co-authors - Steward Rood Section Editor of the Year Award
Justine Lee, MD, PhD, FACS
May 08, 2019
Hi'ilani Potemra Presents at PSRC 2019!
She finished her undergrad degree less than a year ago and, as much as I try, she’s going to grad school for psychology and not med school. BUT, you wouldn’t know it from her phenomenal delivery of her talk entitled Association Between Repeat Alveolar Bone Grafting and Anxiety in Teenagers with Cleft Lip and Palate at the 2019 Plastic Surgery Research Council in Baltimore, MD! So proud of Hi’ilani Potemra! You presented like a surgeon, like you totally do these operations, and like this wasn't your first presentation on the national stage! You should go to med school!!!