Jill Helms
Academic Appointments
- Associate Professor, Surgery - Plastic/Recon Surgery
- Member, Bio-X
Contact Information
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Academic Offices
Personal Information Email Tel (650) 736-0919
Scientific Focus
Research Interests
Dr. Helms is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at Stanford University.
Her research interests center around craniofacial development and regenerative medicine.
Craniofacial morphogenesis
The long-term goal of this component of my research program is to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating normal and abnormal craniofacial development. We use a variety of animal models (mice, chicks, quails, ducks, pigeons) and approaches (genetic approaches, experimental manipulation of embryos) to understand how the face is patterned.
Regenerative medicine
Every adult tissue harbors stem cells, which potentially could be used to regenerate damaged or diseased tissues. In my laboratory, one of our goals is to understand the regulatory pathways that control stem cell self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation. We have focused on two signaling pathways whose activities seem to be an essential feature of tissue healing. Wnts and Hedgehog proteins are both lipid-modified growth factors that have well documented- and essential- roles in embryonic development. We have found that both pathways are active during the repair of bones, muscle, skin, heart, brain, and retina, and that repair of most or all of these tissues is impeded when these two pathways are blocked.
We have developed a novel packaging method whereby the biological activity of lipidated Wnt and Hedgehog proteins can be preserved in the in vivo wound environment. Using these and other tools developed by our collaborator Roel Nusse, we have embarked on experiments to first understand the mechanisms of action of these growth factors in the healing wound, and second, to use this information in biomimetic strategies to accelerate tissue repair.
Prior to Stanford, Dr. Helms spent 8 years at the University of California at San Francisco, where she was the Director of the Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory in the Department...
Publications
- Regeneration, repair and remembering identity: the three Rs of Hox gene expression. Trends Cell Biol. 2009; (6): 268-75
- Role of Wnt signaling in the biology of the periodontium. Dev Dyn. 2009
- Molecular control of facial morphology. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2009
- Controlling the in vivo activity of Wnt liposomes. Methods Enzymol. 2009: 331-47
- Endochondral ossification is required for haematopoietic stem-cell niche formation. Nature. 2009; (7228): 490-4
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