Hematopoiesis News Volume 2.08 | Mar 1 2011

Johns Hopkins Scientists Tie Cell Cycle “Clock” To Childhood Cancers
Abnormal chromosomes have long been detected in children with leukemia and lymphoma, and now, research has linked such abnormalities with a molecular clock that controls the timing of a high-stakes genetic exchange inside dividing immune system cells. [Press release from Johns Hopkins University discussing online prepublication in Immunity]

How Long Do Stem Cells Live?
To help determine how long a bone marrow graft will last, researchers have developed a mathematical model that predicts how long a stem cell will live and tested those predictions in a mouse model. [Press release from Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute discussing online prepublication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA]

Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland Doctor Finds Newborn Screening for Dangerous Blood Disorder Can Save Lives
A new and groundbreaking study is the first of its type to examine the natural history of heritable blood disorder hemoglobin H which is on the rise in the United States. [Press release from the Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland discussing online prepublication in the New England Journal of Medicine]

Fate Therapeutics Announces Emerging Data from Proof-of-Concept FT1050 Clinical Trial and Receives Orphan Drug Designation
Fate Therapeutics, Inc. presented encouraging preliminary data from an ongoing Phase Ib clinical trial of FT1050. [Press release from Fate Therapeutics, Inc. discussing data presented at the 2011 Bone Marrow Transplant Tandem Meetings]

LABORATORY RESEARCH

Coupling of V(D)J Recombination to the Cell Cycle Suppresses Genomic Instability and Lymphoid Tumorigenesis
Scientists infer that cell cycle control of the V(D)J recombinase limits the potential genomic damage that could otherwise result from RAG-mediated DNA cleavage. [Immunity]

Predicting Clonal Self-Renewal and Extinction of Hematopoietic Stem Cells
Researchers used an interdisciplinary approach, combining transplantation assays with mathematical and computational methods, to systematically analyze the proliferative potential of individual hematopoietic stem cells.[Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A]

Genome-Wide Analysis of Target Genes Regulated by HoxB4 in Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells Developing from Embryonic Stem Cells
Investigators performed a genome-wide analysis of HoxB4 and global gene expression profiling using embryonic stem cell-derived hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. [Blood]

The Replication Rate of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells In Vivo
Researchers analyzed the changing ratio with age of maternal/paternal X-chromosome phenotypes in blood cells from females and infer that human hematopoietic stem cells replicate on average once every 40 weeks (range 25-50 weeks). [Blood]

In Vitro Generation of HSC-Like Cells from Murine Embryonic Stem Cells/Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (ESCs/iPSCs) by Enforced Expression of LIM-Homeobox Transcription Factor Lhx2
Scientists show that hematopoietic stem cell (HSC)-like cells were efficiently induced from mouse ESCs by enforced expression of Lhx2, a LIM-homeobox transcription factor. [Blood]

Gfer Inhibits Jab1-Mediated Degradation of p27^kip1 to Restrict Proliferation of Hematopoietic Stem Cells
Researchers show that knock-down of growth factor erv1-like (Gfer) in hematopoietic stem cells compromises their in vivo engraftment potential and triggers a hyper-proliferative response that leads to their exhaustion. [Mol Biol Cell]

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Expressing Elevated Levels of Sox-2, Oct-4, and Klf-4 Are Severely Reduced in Their Differentiation from Mesodermal to Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells
Results suggest that induced pluripotent stem cell generation with the aim of developing hematopoietic cells should be controlled and selected for low levels of transduced Sox-2, Oct-4, and Kfl-4 expression. [Stem Cells Dev]

The Novel Synthesized 2-(3-(methylamino)phenyl)-6-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)Quinolin-4-One (Smh-3) Compound Induces G2/M Phase Arrest and Mitochondrial-Dependent Apoptotic Cell Death Through Inhibition of CDK1 and AKT Activity in HL-60 Human Leukemia Cells
Researchers investigated the effects of Smh-3 on viability, cell cycle and apoptotic cell death which occurred in different leukemia cell lines (HL-60, U937 and K562) in a dose- and time-dependent manner, but which did not obviously impair the viability of normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells in vitro. [Int J Oncol]

CLINICAL RESEARCH

Heterogeneity of Hemoglobin H Disease in Childhood
Investigators analyzed longitudinal clinical data for patients with hemoglobin H disease arising from the deletion of three of four alpha-globin genes and from hemoglobin H Constant Spring, caused by the deletion of two alpha-globin genes and the Constant Spring mutation. [N Engl J Med]

p53 Stabilization Induces Apoptosis in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Blast Crisis Cells
Scientists show that human homolog double minute 2 inhibition, with MI-219—a novel compound, and consequently p53 stabilization induce chronic myeloid leukemia blast crisis cells to undergo apoptosis regardless of the presence of the T315I mutation in the BCR–ABL kinase domain. [Leukemia]

Successful Alemtuzumab Retreatment in Progressive B-Cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: A Multicenter Survey in 30 Patients
Researchers concluded that alemtuzumab retreatment represents an effective and tolerable therapeutic option for selected patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. [Ann Hematol]

Stem Cell Facility Expands Campus’ Research Capabilities
The University of California, Merced celebrated the opening of its state-of-the-art Stem Cell Instrumentation Foundry. [University of California, Merced Press Release]

Tarix Pharmaceuticals Enrolls First Patient in Phase II Clinical Study of TXA127 Following Autologous Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplant
Tarix Pharmaceuticals announced enrollment of the first patient in a Phase II clinical study of TXA127, a pharmaceutical grade formulation of a naturally occurring peptide known to stimulate early hematopoietic precursor cells in the bone marrow. [Tarix Pharmaceuticals Press Release]

Brand Donates to Leukemia and Lymphoma Research
Brand Recruitment has recently made a donation to Leukemia and Lymphoma Research. Staff at the agency decided to allocate money to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Research’s continued research and development for these blood cancers and disorders. [Brand Recruitment Press Release]

Sunesis Receives FDA Fast Track Designation for Vosaroxin in AML
Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that vosaroxin has been granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the potential treatment of relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in combination with cytarabine. [Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Press Release]

Food and Drug Administration (United States)
 
Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (United States)
 
European Medicines Agency (European Union)

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (United Kingdom)

Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia)

NEW 2nd International Hematologic Malignancies Conference Bridging the Gap 2011
March 18-20, 2011
Singapore, Singapore

NEW Nature Chemical Biology Symposium 2011: Cancer Chemical Biology
October 20-22, 2011
Cambridge, United States

Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the hematopoietic community.

Lab Technologist – Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (STEMCELL Technologies)

Hematologist (NorthShore University Health System Medical Group)

Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Bone and Hematopoiesis (New York University)

Research Associate (University of Massachusetts Medical School)

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