{"id":8540,"date":"2023-10-19T17:23:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T21:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/?p=8540"},"modified":"2023-11-06T10:13:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T15:13:12","slug":"hua-mei-leading-limbal-stem-cell-drug-discovery-to-treat-corneal-and-anterior-segment-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/2023\/10\/hua-mei-leading-limbal-stem-cell-drug-discovery-to-treat-corneal-and-anterior-segment-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Hua Mei: Leading Limbal Stem Cell Drug Discovery To Treat Corneal and Anterior Segment Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-8545\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Hua-Mei-Limbal-stem-cell-study-300x94.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"425\" height=\"133\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Hua-Mei-Limbal-stem-cell-study-300x94.png 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Hua-Mei-Limbal-stem-cell-study-768x240.png 768w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Hua-Mei-Limbal-stem-cell-study-600x187.png 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Hua-Mei-Limbal-stem-cell-study.png 829w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 425px) 100vw, 425px\" \/><strong>*<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Over <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">five+ years<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> at UNC, Ophthalmology Assistant Professor of Research <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Hua Mei, PhD<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, has brought wet lab capacity a step closer to fostering translational treatment of corneal and anterior segment diseases. Her laboratory\u2019s translational framework is leading the way in developing the first FDA-approved, anti-fibrotic drug therapy to treat and prevent injury-induced corneal scarring, a leading cause of blindness that affects five+ million people worldwide.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259,&quot;469777462&quot;:[1530],&quot;469777927&quot;:[0],&quot;469777928&quot;:[1]}\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-8542\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Hua-Mei-279x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"215\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dr. Mei noted: \u201cEye specialists can only mitigate damage to eyesight from corneal wounding through removing foreign bodies, providing eye patches, controlling root-cause diseases and treating infections with topical antibiotics and analgesics. An on-market, anti-fibrotic drug therapy would enable those affected to prevent or reduce corneal scar formation through boosting re-epithelialization and reducing myofibroblast transformation in a wounded cornea.\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dr. Mei\u2019s investigative path in corneal scarring drug discovery began by using single-cell RNA sequencing to identify two distinctive populations of <\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">l<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">imbal stem cells<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> (corneal epithelial stem cells). Each limbal stem cell type <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">secretes different signaling molecules. Combined in drug therapy, however, both<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\"> may <\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">facilitate corneal epithelial regeneration and re-establish barrier functions that are the first line of cellular defense against chemical, biological, and physical threats in fighting corneal pathological conditions.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Mei lab discovery of using protein coding gene NBL1 (a BMP antagonist) to inhibit corneal fibrosis and scar formation after wounding in mice and cultured human corneas has led to study of its potential for drug therapy development.\u00a0 <\/span>Both secured patents and others in writing are advancing her lab&#8217;s exclusive investigative rights in applying corneal epithelial stem cell discoveries to novel application of self-administered eye drops to treat corneal limbal stem cell deficiency, corneal scar,\u00a0corneal neovascularization, and dry eye disease.<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Dr. Mei concluded: \u201cMy team\u2019s pre-clinical strides will one day provide the general public and those in higher-risk occupations access to a drug therapy to treat an all-too-common type of ocular trauma. Military personnel and construction workers have higher rates of corneal damage. Domestically, corneal scrapes and store-shelf products with damaging chemicals spilled into eyes affect many adults and children. Without anti-fibriotic therapies on the market to aid healing of corneal injuries, scar tissue that can worsen an individual\u2019s eyesight will almost inevitably form.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 9pt\">* In the June 2022 issue of <em>Cells<\/em>, Dr. Hua Mei&#8217;s laboratory conducted corneal wound-healing experimentation in mouse models using single-cell RNA sequencing as a translational step toward studying wound healing in cultured human corneas. Hua lab discovery of several limbal stem cell and limbal progenitor cell types under normal homeostasis has established a translational framework for further study of the dynamics of corneal epithelial regeneration and wound healing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Over five+ years at UNC, Ophthalmology Assistant Professor of Research Hua Mei, PhD, has brought wet lab capacity a step closer to fostering translational treatment of corneal and anterior segment diseases. Her laboratory\u2019s translational framework is leading the way in developing the first FDA-approved, anti-fibrotic drug therapy to treat and prevent injury-induced corneal scarring, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/2023\/10\/hua-mei-leading-limbal-stem-cell-drug-discovery-to-treat-corneal-and-anterior-segment-disease\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Hua Mei: Leading Limbal Stem Cell Drug Discovery To Treat Corneal and Anterior Segment Disease\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17488,"featured_media":8542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hua Mei: Leading Limbal Stem Cell Drug Discovery To Treat Corneal and Anterior Segment Disease | Department of Ophthalmology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/2023\/10\/hua-mei-leading-limbal-stem-cell-drug-discovery-to-treat-corneal-and-anterior-segment-disease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hua Mei: Leading Limbal Stem Cell Drug Discovery To Treat Corneal and Anterior Segment Disease | Department of Ophthalmology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"* Over five+ years at UNC, Ophthalmology Assistant Professor of Research Hua Mei, PhD, has brought wet lab capacity a step closer to fostering translational treatment of corneal and anterior segment diseases. Her laboratory\u2019s translational framework is leading the way in developing the first FDA-approved, anti-fibrotic drug therapy to treat and prevent injury-induced corneal scarring, &hellip; Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/2023\/10\/hua-mei-leading-limbal-stem-cell-drug-discovery-to-treat-corneal-and-anterior-segment-disease\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Ophthalmology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-19T21:23:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-06T15:13:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/ophth\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1268\/2023\/10\/Hua-Mei-e1697750622771.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"215\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" 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