Available to mentor
Dr. Allison C. Billi is an assistant professor in the University of Michigan Department of Dermatology. Her research aims to define how the skin contributes to systemic autoimmune disease through identifying female-biased pathways and factors in skin that are critical to autoimmunity. In addition, she provides medical dermatology care to patients of all ages within our outpatient clinic at the A. Alfred Taubman Health Care Center.
Dr. Billi is a graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School where she received her medical degree and her PhD in Human Genetics. Following graduation, she completed her transitional year at Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn, Michigan, and a dermatology residency and research fellowship at the University of Michigan Department of Dermatology.
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Center MemberTaubman Institute
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Center MemberSamuel and Jean Frankel Cardiovascular Center
Autoimmune disease shows a striking sex bias, affecting roughly eight times as many women as men, and represents the leading cause of morbidity among women in the United States. Development of new therapies that are safer and more effective than currently available options has been hampered by poor understanding of the mechanisms that cause autoimmune disease, including why women are so disproportionately affected. Furthermore, skin is one of the organs most commonly involved in autoimmune diseases, but the role of skin inflammation in driving these diseases remains largely unknown. The Billi Lab is working to define how the skin contributes to systemic autoimmune disease through identifying female-biased pathways and factors in skin that are critical to autoimmunity.
Current research includes investigating the biological mechanisms that lead to female sex bias in lupus. Using mouse modeling of complex human disease, systems biology applications, and approaches for study of cutaneous and systemic immunology, we are examining how the female-biased factor VGLL3 drives autoimmune disease in the skin of women and exploring whether this pathway could underlie the balance of female-biased autoimmunity and male-biased susceptibility to infection and neoplasm.
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Ma F, Tsou P-S, Gharaee-Kermani M, Plazyo O, Xing X, Kirma J, Wasikowski R, Hile GA, Harms PW, Jiang Y, Xing E, Nakamura M, Ochocki D, Brodie WD, Pillai S, Maverakis E, Pellegrini M, Modlin RL, Varga J, Tsoi LC, Lafyatis R, Kahlenberg JM, Billi AC, Khanna D, Gudjonsson JE. Nat Commun, 2024 Jan 3; 15 (1): 210Journal ArticleSystems-based identification of the Hippo pathway for promoting fibrotic mesenchymal differentiation in systemic sclerosis.
DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-44645-6 PMID: 38172207 -
Poppens M, Hester T, Renati S, Billi AC, Lowe L, Mervak JE. JAAD Case Rep, 2024 Mar; 45: 38 - 40.Journal ArticlePeristomal intestinal metaplasia with response to serial electrosurgery.
DOI:10.1016/j.jdcr.2024.01.002 PMID: 38379880 -
Uppala R, Sarkar MK, Young KZ, Ma F, Vemulapalli P, Wasikowski R, Plazyo O, Swindell WR, Maverakis E, Gharaee-Kermani M, Billi AC, Tsoi LC, Kahlenberg JM, Gudjonsson JE. iScience, 2024 Feb 16; 27 (2): 108986Journal ArticleHERC6 regulates STING activity in a sex-biased manner through modulation of LATS2/VGLL3 Hippo signaling.
DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2024.108986 PMID: 38327798 -
Cohen E, Johnson CN, Wasikowski R, Billi AC, Tsoi LC, Kahlenberg JM, Gudjonsson JE, Coulombe PA. iScience, 2024 Feb 16; 27 (2): 108805Journal ArticleSignificance of stress keratin expression in normal and diseased epithelia.
DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2024.108805 PMID: 38299111 -
van Straalen KR, Ma F, Tsou P-S, Plazyo O, Gharaee-Kermani M, Calbet M, Xing X, Sarkar MK, Uppala R, Harms PW, Wasikowski R, Nahlawi L, Nakamura M, Eshaq M, Wang C, Dobry C, Kozlow JH, Cherry-Bukowiec J, Brodie WD, Wolk K, Uluçkan Ö, Mattichak MN, Pellegrini M, Modlin RL, Maverakis E, Sabat R, Kahlenberg JM, Billi AC, Tsoi LC, Gudjonsson JE. J Clin Invest, 2024 Feb 1; 134 (3):Journal ArticleSingle-cell sequencing reveals Hippo signaling as a driver of fibrosis in hidradenitis suppurativa.
DOI:10.1172/JCI169225 PMID: 38051587 -
Hwang A, Kechter J, Do T, Hughes A, Zhang N, Li X, Wasikowski R, Brumfiel C, Patel M, Boudreaux B, Bhullar P, Nassir S, Yousif M, DiCaudo DJ, Fox J, Gharaee-Kermani M, Xing X, Zunich S, Branch E, Kahlenberg JM, Billi AC, Plazyo O, Tsoi LC, Pittelkow MR, Gudjonsson JE, Mangold AR. 2024 Jan 11;PreprintOral Baricitinib in the Treatment of Cutaneous Lichen Planus.
DOI:10.1101/2024.01.09.24300946 PMID: 38260663 -
Ma F, Gharaee-Kermani M, Tsoi LC, Plazyo O, Chaskar P, Harms P, Patrick MT, Xing X, Hile G, Piketty C, Lazzari A, Van Delm W, Maverakis E, Nakamura M, Modlin RL, Kahlenberg JM, Billi AC, Julia V, Krishnaswamy JK, Gudjonsson JE. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2024 Jan; 153 (1): 146 - 160.Journal ArticleSingle-cell profiling of prurigo nodularis demonstrates immune-stromal crosstalk driving profibrotic responses and reversal with nemolizumab.
DOI:10.1016/j.jaci.2023.07.005 PMID: 37506977 -
Shao S, Sun Z, Chu M, Chen J, Cao T, Swindell WR, Bai Y, Li Q, Ma J, Zhu Z, Schuler A, Helfrich Y, Billi AC, Li Z, Hao J, Xiao C, Dang E, Gudjonsson JE, Wang G. Br J Dermatol, 2023 Nov 18;Journal ArticleFPR1 contributes to epidermal barrier dysfunction-induced skin inflammation through NLRC4-dependent keratinocyte activation.
DOI:10.1093/bjd/ljad455 PMID: 37979162