Home Department: Human Biology
Mentor: Judith Shizuru (Medicine - Blood & Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Division)

“Blood Stem Transplantation and the Bone Marrow Microenvironment”

Bone marrow transplants are often the best treatment and the only potential cure for blood or immune disorders. However, traditionally, for bone marrow transplants to engraft successfully, patients have to be pre-treated with radiation and chemotherapy. The lab aims to leave these toxic pre-treatments in the past and venture into a future where antibodies can be used to clear a host’s stem cells from their bodies, ensuring successful engraftment. Binta will do this by identifying the changes that immune T cells and specific, disease-induced inflammatory states impart on the bone marrow environment that lead to suppression of blood formation and resistance to stem cell engraftment.