Holger Willenbring, MD, PhD
Research Interests
The liver has the capacity to regenerate, but this ability is lost in chronic liver disease. Because donor organs for liver transplantation are sparse, our goal is to establish novel means to promote liver regeneration. For example, we are investigating ways to induce bone marrow or pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into hepatocytes that can be transplanted into patients with end-stage liver disease. To this end, we are studying the origin of liver stem or progenitor cells and are working to understand the signals that direct their expansion and differentiation. In addition to losing its regenerative capacity, the diseased liver undergoes scarring and often develops cancer. Another goal of our laboratory is to understand the mechanisms that lead to this unfortunate chain of events, in particular with regard to the role of immature liver cells in the process of liver cancer initiation and promotion.
Selected Publications
- Rizvi AZ, Swain JS, Bailey AS, Decker AD, Willenbring H, Grompe M, Fleming WH, Wong MH. Bone marrow-derived cells regenerate intestinal epithelium by fusion with multipotent progenitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2006;103:6321-6325.
- Willenbring H, Bailey AS, Jiang S, Anderson DA, Schroeder DA, Wong MH, Grompe M, Fleming WH. Myeloid lineage progenitors give rise to vascular endothelial cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2006;103:13156-13161.
- Willenbring H, Sharma AD, Vogel A, Lee AY, Rothfuss A, Wang Z, Finegold M, Grompe M. Loss of p21 permits carcinogenesis from chronically damaged liver and kidney epithelial cells despite unchecked apoptosis. Cancer Cell. 2008;14:59-67.
- Assistant Professor
- Surgery
Research Theme
- Progenitor Cells, Growth and Development
Contact Information
- willenbringh@
stemcell.ucsf.edu - Phone: (415) 476-2417
- Fax: (415) 514-2346
- 513 Parnassus Ave
- Box 0525, S1457B
- San Francisco, CA 94143-0525
Other UCSF Affiliations
- Institute for Regeneration Medicine
- BMS Graduate Program