Elaine Dzierzak

University of Edinburgh,UK

Elaine Dzierzak received her PhD from Yale University and did postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute MIT. Her research program on the developmental origins of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) began in 1989 at the National Institute for Medical Research in London. She was appointed Professor of Developmental Biology at Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam in 1996, and moved to the Centre for Inflammation Research at University of Edinburgh in 2013. Her research focuses on the development of Hematopoietic Stem Cells and the molecular changes involved in their transdifferentiation from embryonic endothelial cells. In vivo vital imaging of Gata2 transcription factor expression in single embryonic aorta cells undergoing endothelial-to-hematopoietic-transition (EHT) has revealed an unstable fluctuating transcriptional state associated with transition to the hematopoietic lineage. Cell-cell interactions with macrophages and newly identified regulators such as the Apelin Receptor are being tested for functional roles during EHT to understand the dynamic regulation and stochastic generation of HSCs. The long-term objectives are to provide insights and to advance methodologies by which transplantable HSC can be obtained and used for biomedical research and innovative blood-related therapies.