Abstract: In this talk I will discuss the role of a family of metabolites called polyamines in the control of skin health and disease. The polyamines putrescine, spermidine and spermine are ubiquitously expressed cations that are essential for many cellular functions. We have shown that fine-tuned changes in their levels and ratios play an important role in skin physiology and aberrant levels are associated with skin aging, skin hyperpigmentation and wound healing. We propose that resetting polyamine levels can be an effective treatment for these conditions.

Biography: Leah Vardy is a Senior Principal Investigator at the Skin Research Institute of Singapore in A*STAR and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Nanyang Technological University. Leah received her Ph.D at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in London and did post-doctoral work at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge at the MIT in the US. In 2007, she was appointed to A*STAR’s Institute of Medical Biology before joining SRIS in 2018.

Leah has worked in a diverse array of systems including yeast, fruit flies, embryonic stem cells and epidermal cells. Her current research focuses on understanding how cellular behaviour within the epidermis is controlled. Projects in the lab address this in the context of pigmentation, tissue repair and skin aging.