21 June 2019
Peter Zandstra
School of Biomedical Engineering
University of British Columbia
The blood forming system arises de novo during embryogenesis. After dynamic changes during organismal development, blood stem cells settle down in the adult in specialized niches where they support the continuous generation of a diverse population of mature and functional blood cells throughout our lifetime. In this colloquium I will explore the practical and theoretical challenges of generating blood stem cells from pluripotent stem cells, and of isolating and propagating "adult" blood stem cells outside our bodies for therapeutic purposes. I will discuss how heterogeneity, frequency, assay uncertainly, feedback, competition and dynamics create barriers and opportunities in achieving these goals. My approach will be problem-based, and will hopefully surface new ideas and strategies to tackle the fundamental and translational problems of blood stem cell emergence and propagation.