Department of Biology

Srour, Edward F., Ph.D.

Stem Cell Biology
Indiana University Medical Center

My research program involves the characterization and biology of human hematopoietic stem cells. Stem cells, through their pluripotential differentiation capability and their ability to undergo self-renewal, sustain hematopoiesis throughout life and are responsible for lymphohematopoietic reconstitution following bone marrow transplantation. Whether hematopoietic stem cells can be successfully expanded in vitro or not remains a controversial issue. In vitro manipulations of stem cells lead to a progressive loss of stem cell functions and result therefore in a major hindrance to their anticipated use in somatic gene therapy. Thus the major emphasis in my laboratory has been to study the proliferation associated loss of primitive hematopoietic activities among ex vivo expanded stem cells and to investigate ways through which this loss can be minimized. One of the approaches taken in this regard is to examine cell cycle regulation in stem cells and to investigate proliferation kinetics in response to positive and negative growth regulators. In parallel with these studies, my laboratory has also focused on targeting primitive stem cells as efficient vehicles for retroviral mediated somatic gene transfer. These studies will help us better understand how stem cells can be used efficiently in bone marrow transplantation and gene therapy.