Research Summary

Center/Research Area Affiliations

Research Summary

Dr. Guo's research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of corneal wound healing, and developing methods to alter wound-healing mechanisms in a way that allows healing without scarring. TGF-β plays a important role in regulating corneal scarring after wound. By dissecting the signaling response to TGF-β in human corneal stromal cells, she has found that TGF-β stimulates alpha-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) expression mainly through p38 pathway.  The next logical step is to examine if blocking p38 pathway can prevent/repair processes involved in corneal scarring in an in-vivo animal model.

Selected Publications

For a full publication list, please see her CV.

1. Karamichos D, Zareian R, Guo X, Hutcheon AE, Ruberti J, Zieske JD. Novel in Vitro Model for Keratoconus Disease. J Funct Biomater. 2012;3:760-775.

2. Pal-Ghosh S, Pajoohesh-Ganji A, Tadvalkar G, Kyne BM, Guo X, Zieske JD, Stepp MA. Topical Mitomycin-C enhances subbasal nerve regeneration and reduces erosion frequency in the debridement wounded mouse cornea. Exp Eye Res. 2016 May; 146:361-9. doi: 10.1016/j.exer.2015.08.023. Epub 2015 Aug 30.

23. Guo X, Hutcheon AE, Zieske JD. Molecular insights on the effect of TGF-β1/-β3 in human corneal fibroblasts. Exp Eye Res. 2016 May;146:233-41.

4. Sriram S, Tran JA, Guo X, Hutcheon AE, Lei H, Kazlauskas A, Zieske JD. PDGFRα is a Key Regulator of T1 and T3’s Differential Effect on SMA Expression in Human Corneal Fibroblasts. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2017 Feb 1;58(2):1179-1186.

5. Guo X, Hutcheon AE, Tran JA, Zieske JD. TGF-beta-target genes are differentially regulated in corneal epithelial cells and fibroblast. New Frontiers in Ophthalmology. 2017 January 30;3(1):1-8.

View a complete list of publications on pubmed.gov>>

Biosketch

Education

1989: BS, Biochemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

1995: PhD, Medical Science, Peking Union Medical College, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Postgraduate Training

1997: Research Fellow, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, Department of Retrovirology, London, UK

1997-1998: Research Fellow, Peking Union Medical College, Department of Bacteriology, Beijing, China

1998-2000: Postdoctoral Fellow, Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear

Honors

1989: Excellent Graduate Award, Beijing Normal University

1995: Excellent Graduate Student Award, Peking Union Medical College

1996: The Third-Grade Prize on G-CSF Studies, Ministry of Public Health