Lorin E. Olson, Ph.D.

Research

Our laboratory is interested in understanding how wound repair and scar formation are regulated at the cellular and molecular level. All organisms have a robust wound repair response involving the generation of new tissue and extracellular matrix to replace what was damaged or lost. However, diseases such as atherosclerosis and fibrosis resemble wound repair gone wrong. We approach this question by studying genetically modified mice with alterations in platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) signaling. PDGF signaling regulates the conversion of quiescent vascular cells and fibroblasts into activated, matrix-producing cells. Thus, it is important for normal wound repair and has been implicated in several chronic inflammatory diseases. We are using a combination of tissue-specific mutation, genetic background alteration, and lineage tracing to understand how scar formation occurs in disease and how it might be modulated to control disease.