Blood Systems

EXPLORE research in the MCRI Blood Development Lab, led Professor Andrew Elefanty and A/ Professor Elizabeth Ng, focuses on understanding how blood cells develop in the human.

Understanding blood development and disorders:

The Blood Development lab utilise human pluripotent stem cells to investigate blood cell development and related disorders. While blood stem cell transplantation is crucial for treating blood disorders, finding suitable donors poses challenges. Mismatched transplants often result in graft versus host disease, causing severe illness or death. To address this, our research focuses on creating person-specific blood stem cells to prevent complications. By studying blood formation and comparing laboratory-made cells to those during human development, we aim to improve the production of transplantable blood cells and discover new drugs for blood diseases like leukaemia and bone marrow failure.

This research underpins targeted projects investigating:

• Modelling childhood leukaemia to better understand the disease

Creating blood cells from stem cells:

To underpin our broader research goals, this EXPLORE research centres around refining methods to create blood cells using human stem cells. Bone marrow transplants are a vital treatment for blood diseases, but the challenge lies in finding suitably matched cells to avoid graft versus host disease. This project aims to model blood cell development using pluripotent stem cells, understanding key genetic and molecular steps. Efficiently generating matched bone marrow cells in the lab could provide a crucial therapy for individuals with blood diseases, offering an alternative to conventional treatments.

This research underpins targeted projects investigating:

• Developing of a measure of blood stem cells generated in the lab
• Creating cartilage from stem cells

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