But these manipulations result in an artificial environment that hampers a genuine understanding of the physiology
of blood development.
To
study blood development, researchers typically purify blood stem cells from the bone marrow of mice and transplant them into mice exposed to radiation, thus creating a tractable experimental system.
Besides blood development, his team also is investigating elusive populations of multipotent stem cells that persist in adult tissues, including dispensable ones like fat.
These cells can produce platelets and red blood cells, and a full understanding of their in vivo derivation and fate decision choices represent critical areas for our understanding of
normal blood development and processes underlying cancer.