Ljubimov Lab
Donor human cornea for stem cell studies.
The Ljubimov Laboratory, under the direction of Alexander Ljubimov, PhD, director of the Eye Program at the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute, is focused on diabetic eye disease. The goal of the Ljubimov Lab is to unravel human stem cell alterations in diabetic eye disease and their impact on disease development, in order to restore stem cell functions for future clinical translation. In the cornea, the aim is to normalize altered epithelial stem cells by gene therapy in organ cultures.
The Ljubimov Lab has also developed a new nano gene therapy for diabetic corneal disease. Recently, the lab's focus is on the development of a new induced pluripotent stem cell-driven source of corneal epithelial stem cells for limbal stem cell deficiency. Researchers in the Ljubimov Lab are investigating corneal markers that are epigenetically suppressed in diabetes.
The Ljubimov Laboratory is affiliated with the Regenerative Medicine Institute and Department of Biomedical Sciences.
Personal Statement
I am the director of the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute Eye Program, professor of biomedical sciences and neurosurgery and professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. My background is in cancer research, and I have studied ocular diabetes for the past 25 years."
Alexander Ljubimov, PhD
Delayed wound healing, erosions, and keratitis — the most serious complications of diabetes in the cornea — are treated only symptomatically. The Ljubimov Laboratory has described a number of markers altered in diabetic corneas. Using adenoviral gene therapy, the lab has been able to correct aberrant wound healing and several marker protein expression abnormalities in human organ-cultured diabetic corneas.
Collaborations & Resources
Collaborations
Reagents and Resources
- The healthy and diabetic human eye tissues for Ljubimov Laboratory experiments are purchased from the National Disease Research Interchange (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).
- Ezra Maguen, MD, (American Eye Institute, Los Angeles) and Yaron Rabinowitz, MD, (Cedars-Sinai) are kindly supplying discard human corneoscleral rings for stem cell cultures under the approved Cedars-Sinai IRB protocols.
Meet Our Team
Learn more about the scientists, faculty members, investigators and other healthcare professionals of the Ljubimov Laboratory, whose dedicated efforts lead to groundbreaking discoveries.
Publications
Leszczynska A, Kulkarni M, Ljubimov AV, Saghizadeh M.
Sci Rep. 2018 Oct 11;8(1):15173.
Saghizadeh M, Kramerov AA, Svendsen CN, Ljubimov AV.
Stem Cells.2017 Oct;35(10):2105-2114.
Ljubimova JY, Sun T, Mashouf L, Ljubimov AV, Israel LL, Ljubimov VA, Falahatian V, Holler E.
Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2017 Apr;113:177-200.
Contact the Ljubimov Lab
127 S. San Vicente Blvd.
Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion, Suite A8106
Los Angeles, CA 90048