simply blood

The pace of science is accelerating. Papers are becoming ever more interdisciplinary and complex, and the revision process is turning more and more arduous. As jobs become more competitive, the pressure to publish in top impact journals keeps getting higher. The result of all this is that high quality submissions are suffering from unacceptably long publishing queues, which negatively impacts the dissemination of important results. To accelerate the speed at which important findings are shared with the global scientific community, researchers in physics, economics, mathematics and computer sciences have long used the preprint model. This involves depositing a finished manuscript in an open access preprint server for the community to interpret, judge and ultimately learn from. The server operators minimally check the manuscript for appropriate content, but do not judge or peer-review the science. Thus, a preprint does not substitute for properly peer-reviewed research in an indexed jou...

In this issue of Simply Blood , we are deconstructing an invited perspective from Experimental Hematology as  Dr. Forsberg and colleagues build on their interesting prior work on differentiation of tissue resident macrophages (trMacs) via an interleukin-7 a   receptor (IL7R a )-positive progenitor (Leung et al. 2019). trMac differentiation follows a ‘nontraditional’ pathway of myeloid cell specification occurring in fetal hematopoiesis. In this study, they now examine the role of IL-7 signaling in the maintenance of other tissue myeloid cells - neutrophils and eosinophils - in the lung, work directed at better understanding the immune system of the lung and its relationship to respiratory diseases. First, the authors examined lung B-cell, neutrophil, and eosinophil content in Flk2 -/- , IL7R a -/- , or combined knock-out mice. Dr. Forsberg had previously shown that all ‘traditional’ adult myeloid and lymphoid cells, but not trMacs, develop via a Flk2-positive progenitor (Be...

What is self-advocacy? Self-advocacy involves speaking up for yourself, your worth, and your needs. The concept of self-advocacy transcends disciplines and its’ mastery is critical for the career development and promotion of scientists at all stages of training. Self-advocacy requires you to bring attention to yourself and your needs, which may be a particularly uncomfortable task for trainees from disadvantaged backgrounds. Under-represented minority scientists are often the only person from a particular background in their group, department, or institution, and thus they may not feel a strong sense of support in their current position. Unfortunately, under-represented minority scholars often feel as though they are responsible for carrying the weight of their communities as they complete their training, and this will not be corrected until dedicated efforts are put forth by the scientific community to support diversity and inclusion. For example, under-represented minority scientist...

We survived our first virtual ISEH meeting - our first, and hopefully our last! I'm sure it is safe to say that everyone missed the comradery and personal experience that is typical in an ISEH meeting, but as far as virtual meetings go, this one was as close as we could come to re-creating the real thing. Now that the ISEH 2020 Virtual Scientific Meeting has concluded, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on the overall experience. To start off, we'd like to share with you a breakdown of a few features and demographics from the meeting: Registration There were 527 registered participants in the virtual meeting. This is including speakers, exhibitors, sponsors and paid attendees. Our attendees logged in from all over the world with 30% from Europe/Middle East/Africa, 61% from the Americas, and 9% from Asia/Pacific Rim. These attendees represented 28 different countries! Engagement Over the course of the live meeting we had:  654 private messages sent among attendees 2,0...

In this issue of Simply Blood, we are highlighting and deconstructing an invited perspective from the latest Experimental Hematology, "Lineage commitment of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors: insights from recent single-cell and lineage tracing technologies" by Loughran et al. This perspective summarizes the Summer 2019 ISEH New Investigator Committee Webinar, "Changing concepts in lineage commitment" and update the recent progress of understanding lineage commitment using lineage tracing combined with single-cell transcriptomics and proteomics. ( Loughran et al., 2020 ) My reason to read this paper: The self-renewal and multilineage differentiation abilities are two essential characteristics of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). In the history of the hematopoietic field, to understand the cell fate determination and lineage potential from each HSC and progenitor population, people have taken various strategies including colony-forming assays, stromal co-cultur...

  The ISEH Annual Meeting looked a bit different this year. We celebrated the 2020 Virtual Scientific Meeting with our exciting program including career and technology sessions, as well as talks and poster presentations from trainees, new investigators and leaders in the field. On behalf of the ISEH Board of Directors, volunteers, and staff, we'd like to thank our 2020 sponsors and exhibitors, seen below. We hope to see you all in New York in 2021! This program is supported by an independent medical education grant by Celgene Corporation. THANK YOU TO OUR 2020 GOLD SPONSOR THANK YOU TO OUR 2020 SILVER SPONSORS THANK YOU TO OUR 2020 BRONZE SPONSORS THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS Funding for this conference was made possible (in part) by 1R13HL154589-01 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the NIH; nor does mention by ...

This week on Simply Blood we are wrapping up our 2020 Interview Spotlight Series. In Part IV we are featuring the 2020 ISEH Donald Metcalf Award Winner: Harvey Lodish, MD . Here, he answers questions about his life, work, mentorship, and more. Have additional questions for Dr. Lodish? Don't miss his opening Keynote session at this year’s Virtual Scientific Meeting !

In this issue of Simply Blood, we are highlighting and deconstructing one of the journal’s latest manuscripts by first author Darlene A. Monlish. In a recent study in the laboratory of Dr. Laura Schuettpelz (Washington University School of Medicine), Monlish et al described heterodimer-specific effects of TLR2 signaling on premalignant hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) in a mouse model of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). ( Monlish et al., 2020 ). TLR2 expression is increased on the HSPCs of patients with MDS, however its role in MDS pathogenesis is not clear. Notably, TLR2 heterodimerizes with TLR1 or TLR6, and while high TLR2 is associated with lower-risk disease, high TLR6, but not TLR1, correlates with higher-risk disease. This raises the possibility of heterodimer-specific effects of TLR2 signaling in MDS. Indeed, the authors found that chronic stimulation of TLR2/6 (but not TLR1/2) signaling accelerated leukemic transformation in a NUP98-HOXD13 (NHD13) mouse model of...

This week on Simply Blood we are continuing our 2020 Interview Spotlight Series. In Part III we are featuring the inaugural ISEH Janet Rowley Award Winner: Jennifer Trowbridge, Ph.D.. Dr. Trowbridge’s lab studies cell fate regulation within the hematopoietic system, with a current focus on the epigenetic regulation of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitor cell lineage commitment. Here, she answers questions about her work, trends in hematology, mentorship, and more. Have additional questions for Dr. Trowbridge? Don't miss her session at this year’s Virtual Scientific Meeting! 1. What was the biggest challenge that you had to face in your career so far?   Recruiting a team of scientists that I fully believed in, and felt inspired by, took much longer than I anticipated after starting my lab. It was a significant challenge starting a laboratory in a fairly remote location and there were times when I honestly thought this dream would not happen. What it took for me to get through th...

Exploring Experimental Hematology : Engineering of targeted megabase-scale deletions in human induced pluripotent stem cells In this issue of Simply Blood, we are highlighting and deconstructing one of the journal’s latest manuscripts by first author Andriana G. Kotini.  This paper is an extension of the Papapetrou Lab’s ongoing work focused on modeling myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). [ https://www.exphem.org/article/S0301-472X(20)30193-4/ ] Reason to read this paper: AML is one of the most common malignancies of adulthood, comprising about 1/3 of all new leukemia cases diagnosed in the United States each year. AML often develops from MDS, a preleukemic condition of HSC failure caused by recurrent somatic mutations and chromosomal aberrations in HSC clones that impair their effective differentiation. MDS occurs sporadically in older adults but can frequently affect younger people with inherited...

This week on  Simply Blood  we are continuing our 2020 Interview Spotlight Series. In Part II we are featuring the ISEH 2020 New Investigator's Invitee:  Elisa Laurenti, MBS; PhD . Dr. Laurenti answers questions about her work, trends in hematology, mentorship, and more. Have additional questions for Dr. Laurenti? Don't miss her session at this year's  Virtual Scientific Meeting . 1. How would you describe your science? Ultimately, I want to contribute to the understanding of how such a complex cellular system as blood production is set up and maintained. Currently my laboratory is particularly interested in how haematopoiesis changes throughout a human life, starting from the embryo all the way to the old age. From my PhD, I have been fascinated by cellular quiescence, and why its molecular regulation is such an important feature to maintain healthy blood production. Now my laboratory looks at how understanding quiescence networks can contribute to gene therapy and ...