News From the Baskin Lab
The mission of the Baskin laboratory is to investigate the causes of congenital and acquired pediatric urologic diseases. By understanding etiology we hope to advance prospects for cure/prevention. The main focus of the laboratory is to understand hypospadias.
Welcome to the Baskin Lab
Our Research
Our banked blood, DNA and serum from patients with hypospadias have allowed us to identified a number of genes that are associated with increased risk of hypospadias. Additionally, we have shown that defects in androgen metabolism are a rare form of hypospadias and account for only a tiny minority of patents with hypospadias.
We have described the basic development of the urethra including the two-zipper hypothesis of penile urethral development. The human male urethra appears to form by two mechanisms: (1) An initial androgen independent “opening zipper”and (2) An androgen dependent “closing zipper.”
We described in detail with histology, computer 3-D reconstruction, immunohistochemistry and Optical projection tomography the anatomy of the human male and female external genitalia. This work has lead to a more precise anatomical understanding of the surgical anatomy of the normal male and the hypospadiac penis.
We hypothesize that select genes differentially expressed before smooth muscle differentiation, rather than those expressed after smooth muscle differentiation, are part of the mechanism that induces bladder smooth muscle formation.
Our lab is deeply rooted in translating scientific discoveries to health improvement. Results from our primary studies have been published with a goal of practical and constructive use in our clinical practice.
Featured Work
This paper provides the first detailed description of flutamide-induced hypospadias in the rat based upon wholemount, histologic, three-dimensional reconstruction, scanning electron microscopic, and immunocytochemical analysis.
In this abstract, we describe the "double zipper" mechanism of human male urethral formation, where the distal zipper opens the urethral groove through canalization of the urethral plate, and a second closing zipper follows behind and closes the urethral groove to form the tubular urethra.
Our People
