Therapeutic Implications of Modulating β-catenin in Cholestasis

Presenter: Kari Nejak-Bowen, MBA, PhD 

For the past 16 years Dr. Nejak-Bowen’s research has been focused on understanding the cellular and molecular basis of liver health and disease. Specifically, she is interested in understanding the role of signaling pathways such as Wnt/b-catenin in liver regeneration, injury, and cholestasis. Currently, she is elucidating the role of b-catenin in reprogramming of hepatocytes to cholangiocytes during chronic biliary injury, which is the topic of her presentation today. Her long-term goal is to ultimately apply my knowledge to the development of improved diagnostics and clinically relevant therapies in the treatment of cholestatic liver disease.

Background Reading:

• Kosar, K., Cornuet, P., Singh, S., Lee, E., Liu, S., Gayden, J., Sato, T., Freyberg, Z., Arteel, G. and Nejak-Bowen, K. (2021), WNT7B Regulates Cholangiocyte Proliferation and Function During Murine Cholestasis. Hepatol Commun, 5: 2019-2034. https://doi.org/10.1002/hep4.1784
• Karis Kosar, Pamela Cornuet, Sucha Singh, Silvia Liu, Kari Nejak-Bowen, The Thyromimetic Sobetirome (GC-1) Alters Bile Acid Metabolism in a Mouse Model of Hepatic Cholestasis, The American Journal of Pathology,Volume 190, Issue 5, 2020, Pages 1006-1017, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajpath.2020.01.015.
• Pradhan-Sundd, T., Kosar, K., Saggi, H., Zhang, R., Vats, R., Cornuet, P., Green, S., Singh, S., Zeng, G., Sundd, P. and Nejak-Bowen, K. (2020), Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Plays a Protective Role in the Mdr2 Knockout Murine Model of Cholestatic Liver Disease. Hepatology, 71: 1732-1749. https://doi.org/10.1002/hep.30927