Speaker: Trista North, Harvard Medical School, Pathology, associate professor

Title: “Netting novel regulators of hematopoietic stem cell formation in the vertebrate embryo” 

Abstract: Understanding how hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) are specified from mesodermal precursors is essential to the larger goal of generating patient-specific HSPCs for therapeutic use. Following earlier waves of production of lineage restricted progenitors, HSPCs are derived de novo from hemogenic endothelium in select arterial niches in the vertebrate embryo through a process termed endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition (EHT). Despite increasing efforts to recapitulate this specification process in vitro, current differentiation protocols largely fail to efficiently produce or expand long-lived multi-potent HSPCs in the culture dish, suggesting we still do not fully understand the regulatory cues driving or maintaining HSC fate. Dr. Trista E. North will discuss the critical role of extrinsic regulatory factors in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) formation during embryonic development. In particular, environmental cues resulting from embryonic maturation appear to play a key role: biomechanical and metabolic stimuli, inflammatory signals, and morphogen gradients converge to coordinately regulate the timing, location and scale of HSC production. This session will outline emerging data describing the integration of extrinsic developmental cues with intracellular signaling networks to regulate the onset and maintenance of HSC formation across vertebrate species, from zebrafish to human.

Meeting link: https://iastate.webex.com/iastate/j.php?MTID=mb238d165439455f48123c9a3d116aef8 

Feb. 16, 2021, GDCB Seminar flyer (Trista North)