Krause Lab

The overall goals of research in the Krause laboratory are to define the molecular mechanisms that regulate hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis using bone marrow derived stem and progenitor cells with the hopes of translating the findings to improved strategies for bone marrow/stem cell transplantation as well as for developing novel strategies for treating leukemia and lymphoma.

In addition, my laboratory is determining the extent to which marrow-derived cells can differentiate into epithelial cells (termed adult cell plasticity) and assessing how this correlates with tissue damage, as well as the mechanisms by which it occurs.

Stem cells are characterized by the ability to self-renew through mitotic divisions and to differentiate into a diverse range of specialized cell types to form a whole organism.

Current Research & Projects

The Krause Laboratory is pursuing three projects. The first is focused on defining the molecular mechanism(s) that regulate gene expression during developmental hematopoiesis. Using molecular biological techniques, I am identifying promoter and silencer regions upstream of the CD34 gene, and defining the protein factors that regulate CD34 expression via interaction with these critical regions. In addition, we are using PCR subtraction techniques and cDNA arrays to identify additional genes that are expressed exclusively on hematopoietic stem cells. more...