Division of Stem Cell and Molecular Medicine

Stem cells have the remarkable capacity to self-renew and give rise to many types of specialized cells in the body, which explains their great therapeutic potential in regenerative medicine. But that’s not the only reason stem cells have become such a hotbed of scientific inquiry. These cellular transformers also offer an invaluable research tool for probing the disease mechanisms that underpin cancer, aging and a host of other health problems. Our major interest is to elucidate the mechanisms of self-renewal and multi-lineage differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). We are also interested in how the deregulated HSC functions are associated with aging of our body and the development of age-related hematological malignancies. We approach these issues mainly from the view point of epigenetics, such as DNA and histone modifications and higher order chromatin architecture.