# A Hippo-Yap Pathway in Cranial Bone Development and Regeneration

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · 2020 · $147,892

## Abstract

The role of the Hippo-signaling pathway, an evolutionarily conserved organ size control
pathway, in cranial bone development and regeneration is poorly understood. We specifically
inactivated the Hippo component Salv, and Hippo downstream effectors Yap and Taz in the
cranial neural crest (CNC) using the Wnt1cre driver and Wnt1cre2SOR drivers. Salv conditional
knock-out (CKO) mutants had dramatically enlarged calvarial bones and cranial sutures with
increased calvarial bone density, whereas mutants of Taz homozygous and Yap heterozygous
CKO had a range of survival times from E14.5 to postnatal 8 weeks with a range of calvarial
bone defects with Wormian bones and decreased calvarial bone density. Notably, our
preliminary data suggested that expression and subcellular localization of Yap changes upon
Hippo kinase activity, extracellular matrix rigidity and Notch signaling activity.
 In this proposed K01 study, we investigate the function of Hippo signaling and Yap/Taz
mediated signaling crosstalk during cranial bone development and regeneration and will
study three aims: 1) To investigate the hypothesis that Hippo signaling and extracellular
environment cooperatively regulate osteoblast proliferation and differentiation during cranial
bone formation; 2) To investigate the signaling cross talk between Hippo and Notch signaling
during cranial bone development; 3) To identify novel target genes of Hippo signaling during
cranial bone development and regeneration.
 My research will focus on bone regeneration and treatment of severely injured bone. This
K01 study will provide preliminary data and potential targets in bone regenerative medicine for
my subsequent R01 application.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9951031
- **Project number:** 5K01DE026561-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Jun Wang
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $147,892
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9951031

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9951031, A Hippo-Yap Pathway in Cranial Bone Development and Regeneration (5K01DE026561-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9951031. Licensed CC0.

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