PAUL KHAVARI
Paul Khavari, MD, PhD, Carl J. Herzog Professor, Department of Dermatology, Stanford School of Medicine
Research Description: Dr. Paul Khavari’s research focuses on understanding stem cell differentiation and disease in mammalian systems using multiomics, informatics, mouse and human genetics, single-cell analysis, and advanced human tissue platforms. His lab has pioneered Multi-Functional Human Tissue Genetics, enabling complex, high-throughput genetic studies in regenerated human skin and organotypic constructs. A recent focus of his lab has uncovered a surprising and novel role for glucose—not just as a metabolic fuel but as a global regulator of tissue differentiation. His team discovered that glucose in its intact form binds to hundreds of regulatory proteins, including transcription factors, modulating gene expression to promote differentiation across multiple tissues. These findings have profound implications for diabetes, a disease marked by altered glucose levels and impaired tissue regeneration (READ HERE). By uncovering glucose’s active signaling role, Dr. Khavari’s research opens new avenues for understanding how elevated blood sugar may contribute to dysfunction in diabetic tissues and highlights potential therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring healthy cellular differentiation.
Selected relevant publications (Stanford DRC members are in BOLD)
Lopez-Pajares V, Bhaduri A, Zhao Y, Gowrishankar G, Donohue LKH, Guo MG, Siprashvili Z, Miao W, Nguyen DT, Yang X, Li AM, Tung AS, Shanderson RL, Winge MCG, Meservey LM, Srinivasan S, Meyers RM, Guerrero A, Ji AL, Garcia OS, Tao S, Gambhir SS, Long JZ, Ye J, Khavari PA. Glucose modulates IRF6 transcription factor dimerization to enable epidermal differentiation. Cell Stem Cell. 2025 May 1;32(5):795-810.e10. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2025.02.017. Epub 2025 Mar 21. PMID: 40120584; PMCID: PMC12048241.