Overview
Understanding developmental timing in hematopoiesis
We are interested in unlocking new paradigms of normal blood development with the long-term aim of building better models of childhood blood diseases. The process of blood formation changes over a lifetime: the blood stem cells formed in the embryo, newborn, child, and adult differ in their self-renewal and output of mature cells. We aim to understand the molecular regulation of how blood formation is ‘timed’ during development and aging and apply this knowledge to blood diseases, many of which are biased toward specific ages.
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Location
Karp Family Research Laboratories
1 Blackfan Circle
Boston, MA 02115
Our focus
Normal development
Blood formation is fine tuned to the developmental needs of the host through intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms. We study the molecular regulators of temporal blood development and aging with the aim of applying this understanding to disease pathobiology.
Leukemia
Different types of leukemia show strong age biases. Leukemia affecting children is very different from that of adults. We investigate these age differences, tying them back to the normal changes that occur in the blood forming system over time.
Pluripotent stem cell models
Human embryonic stem cells and pluripotent stem cells are invaluable in modeling normal and diseased blood development. We are interested in optimizing these systems to faithfully recapitulate age-biased blood diseases.
Bone marrow failure
Using the power of clinical genetics, we are discovering new genes that cause >bone marrow failure and myelodysplastic syndrome in children. We are interested in applying our pluripotent stem cell systems to understanding mechanisms of bone marrow failure.