# Calcium Signaling in Hematopoiesis

> **NIH NIH R03** · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $77,625

## Abstract

Project Summary
Current understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying hematopoietic stem cell specification (HSCs) to
generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) is still limited. In this proposal, we seek to understand the role
of calcium signaling, acting through CaMKII, in HSC specification in zebrafish embryos. Suppression of one of
the seven transcriptionally active CaMKII genes, camk2g1, leads to increased expression of ezh2, the functional
enzymatic component of the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2), inhibiting HSC specification. We first seek
to characterize the role of camk2g1 in HSC specification through use of genetic knockdown techniques and
pharmacological inhibitors. We then seek to determine how increased expression of ezh2 in camk2g1 deficient
embryos alters downstream signaling important for HSC specification. Preliminary results suggest increased
ezh2 expression inhibits downstream expression of target genes (tgfbr2 and jag1a) resulting in apoptosis of
HSCs in the ventral wall of the dorsal aorta. The results from this proposal will provide novel insight into the
calcium-dependent signaling pathways necessary to generate all lineages of HSCs from iPS cells.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10108263
- **Project number:** 1R03HD103833-01
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sarah Chase Rothschild
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $77,625
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-04-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10108263

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10108263, Calcium Signaling in Hematopoiesis (1R03HD103833-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10108263. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*