Discovery and Innovation Seminar: “Pathways Regulating Hematopoietic Stem Cell Self-Renewal and Migration”

Speaker: Leonard I. Zon, MD, Director, Stem Cell Program, Boston Children’s Hospital, Grousbeck Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Talk Summary: The zebrafish has emerged as an excellent system to study disease. Dr. Leonard Zon and his lab have been studying the hematopoietic system. The blood stem cells arise from the aorta during embryogenesis, and sequentially colonize new sites of hematopoiesis. Using chemical genetics they have found a number of chemicals that modify the induction of stem cells and their migration. PGE2 was found to be required for stem cell birth, and a stabilized version leads to potent numbers of stem cells. dmPGE2 can stimulate marrow engraftment of murine or human hematopoietic cel ls when transplanted. A clinical trial with dmPGE2 for cord blood transplantation showed activity. A chemical suppressor screen of the rps29 mutant that models Diamond Blackfan anemia identified calmodulin inhibitors lead to a rescue of blood. Their studies illustrate that new therapies can be found using the zebrafish system.

Hosted by Alan S. Wayne, MD, Director, Children's Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases, Head, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Tran splantation,Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Interim Director, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
RSVP to tecpad@chla.usc.edu. For questions, please email Sandy Wang at sawang@chla.usc.edu