Assistant Professor

Institute of Molecular Medicine / Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine

Pediatric Surgery

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (Houston, TX)

The primary aim of my research is to identify new ways of improving cellular therapies used for the treatment of hematologic disorders and cancers, and much of my work relies on bioengineering and pharmacological approaches to study the specification, proliferation, and differentiation of blood precursors.

Bone marrow transplantation is used to treat a wide array of diseases, including bone marrow failure syndromes and cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. Ablative treatments used prior to bone marrow transplantation clear a patient’s own bone marrow in preparation for donor marrow. During the period immediately following marrow transplant, the patient is extremely susceptible to cytopenia, a condition in which low numbers of blood cells can increase vulnerability to anemia, infection, and bleeding. Further, exhaustion of the donor cells that reconstitute a patient's blood system can be a recurrent issue long-term.

We now believe that adipocytic infiltration of the marrow that accompanies radiation and chemotherapy could inhibit blood production and exacerbate red and white blood cell deficiencies. One of the goals of my research is to identify pharmacologic compounds that can accelerate blood recovery during the post-transplant period. To this end, I am screening compounds that antagonize adipogenesis (fat cell formation) and adipocyte function to enhance engraftment and expansion of blood progenitors.

Further, in an effort to develop improved sources of donor stem cells, I am studying the role of biomechanical forces in promoting hematopoiesis of embryonic blood precursors and embryonic stem cells. In the developing embryo, initiation of the heartbeat causes blood to circulate through the vasculature and subjects vessel walls to hemodynamic forces, including friction, pressure, and stretching. Recently, we have found that the frictional force created by fluid flow is a powerful, and even necessary, signal for emergence of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors. My current and future research efforts are designed to address how biomechanical force activates the hematopoietic program and how we might use this information in the laboratory to expand alternative sources of hematopoietic cells that can be used for patients in the clinic.

2007-2008 Board Member, Sigma Xi

2002-2003 President, Molecular Genetics Graduate Student Association

1991-1994 Laboratory Technician, International Enzymes, Inc., Fallbrook, CA