TERMIS

George Q. Daley, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biological Chemistry, Molecular Pharmacology and Pediatrics
Children's Hospital Boston, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Stem Cell Institute

George Daley's work focuses on embryonic stem (ES) cells, which have the potential to differentiate into all other cell types. More specifically, his lab is investigating:

The differentiation of hematopoietic (blood producing) stem cells from embryonic cells. Daley and colleagues study hematopoietic development in mouse embryos and in human and mouse ES cells in order to define the molecular genetic programs that enable formation of HSCs in experimental and therapeutic models.

Self-renewal and differentiation of human ES cells. The lab is using expression cloning together with genomic and proteomic strategies to identify factors that specify human ES cell self-renewal and differentiation. They are building tools for gene expression and gene knock-down in human ES cells to facilitate experimental and therapeutic studies.

Germ cell development. Daley and colleagues have devised methods for directed differentiation of ES cells into primordial germ cells. and techniques for isolating and transplantating of spermatagonial stem cells from testes. Using this integrated system, they have grown ES-derived germ cell populations into functional sperm.

Target-directed chemotherapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML): Daley's team has determined how Gleevec works and how cancer cells develop resistance to the drug. His current studies -- now in clinical trials -- are aimed at defining optimal combination chemotherapy regimens to avert resistance.

Megan Sykes, M.D.
Associate Director, Transplantation Biology Research Center
Chief, Bone Marrow Transplantation Section
Head, Cellular Immunology Laboratory
Immunologist, Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor of Surgery and Medicine (Immunology), Harvard Medical School

Megan Sykes is the Harold and Ellen Danser Professor in the Department of Surgery and Professor of Medicine (Immunology) at Harvard Medical School. She is an Immunologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Associate Director of the Transplantation Biology Research Center. She is the Immediate Past President of the International Xenotransplantation Association and is Vice President of The Transplantation Society.

Dr. Sykes' research is in the areas of hematopoietic cell transplantation, achievement of graft-versus-leukemia effects without GVHD, organ allograft tolerance induction and xenotransplantation. She has published 341 papers and book chapters in these areas. Her research program aims to utilize bone marrow transplantation as immunotherapy to achieve graft-versus-tumor effects while avoiding the common complication of such transplants, graft-versus-host disease. Her laboratory studies in this area have led to novel approaches that have been evaluated in clinical trials at MGH. Another major area of her research has been to utilize bone marrow transplantation for the induction of transplantation tolerance, both to organs from the same species (allografts) and from other species (xenografts). Her laboratory has worked toward the development of clinically feasible, non-toxic methods of re-educating the T cell, B cell and NK cell components of the immune system to accept allografts and xenografts without requiring long-term immunosuppressive therapy. Her work has also extended into the area of xenogeneic thymic transplantation as an approach to tolerance induction, and into the mechanisms by which non-myeloablative induction of mixed chimerism reverses the autoimmunity of Type 1 diabetes.

Sanjay Nigam, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Cellular & Molecular Medicine
University of California - San Diego

Dr. Nigam is the Nancy Kaehr Chair in Research at the University of California-San Diego, where he serves as a member of the Departments of Pediatrics, Medicine/Nephrology, Bioengineering, and Cellular and Molecular Medicine (Cell Biology).

Over the years, his group has focused on work in three areas: 1) approaches to tissue engineering of the kidney; 2) mechanisms of kidney development using in vitro systems; and 3) the molecular basis of drug handling by the kidney.