Andrzej A. Dlugosz

TL;DR: An obligatory role for the secreted morphogen Sonic hedgehog (Shh) during hair follicle development is reported, where it is required for normal advancement beyond the hair germ stage of development.

TL;DR: It is shown that human basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) are frequently ciliated, and the role of cilia in BCC is tested by conditionally deleting Kif3a or Ift88, genes required for ciliogenesis, in two Hh pathway–dependent mouse tumor models.

TL;DR: Primary cilia could serve as a diagnostic tool and provide new insights into the mechanism of tumorigenesis and the presence or absence of cilia was associated with specific variants of human medulloblastomas; primary cilia were found in medull Oblastomas with activation in HH or WNT signaling but not in most medullOBlastomas in other distinct molecular subgroups.

TL;DR: Data place Wnt/beta-catenin signaling upstream of key morphogenetic signaling pathways at multiple stages of tooth development and indicate that tight regulation of this pathway is essential both for patterning tooth development in the dental lamina, and for controlling the shape of individual teeth.

TL;DR: Genomic analysis of tumor biopsies revealed that vismodegib resistance is associated with Hedgehog (Hh) pathway reactivation, predominantly through mutation of the drug target SMO and to a lesser extent through concurrent copy number changes in SUFU and GLI2.