# The Role of Wnt Signaling in Normal and Abnormal Hematopoiesis

> **NIH NIH R00** · SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $48,264

## Abstract

Project Summary
Environment: The scientific environment in the Greater San Diego area, where San Diego State University is
located, is outstanding. In addition to the resources and colleagues at San Diego State University itself, there
are several world-class research institutions within a 20-minute drive, including the University of California San
Diego, The Scripps Research Institute, The Salk Institute, and the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Research Institutes.
Faculty at San Diego State University routinely collaborate with scientists, and make use of care facilities, from
all over the San Diego area. Research efforts are able to run smoothly here, due to the abundance of core
facilities and expertise available in any area of science.
Candidate: Dr. Grainger completed her postdoctoral training in David Traver’s lab at the University of California,
San Diego, where she worked in close collaboration with Dr. Karl Willert’s lab. This collaboration led to the
publication of three first author papers, a book chapter, a review paper and several co-author papers. Following
this training, she is well poised to execute the proposed work and to contribute high impact research to the
scientific community.
Research: All mature blood cells are derived from hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Generating HSCs in vitro
from pluripotent precursors such induced pluripotent stem cells would allow us to treat diseases such as
leukemias and lymphomas with in vitro derived HSCs, circumventing the need for bone marrow donation. This
would also establish an important cellular tool for understanding the underlying mechanisms of hematopoietic
diseases. The overarching goal of this proposal is to gain a better understanding of one of the developmental
cues that instruct HSC fate from mesoderm, the Wnt signaling cascade. This study will be conducted in zebrafish,
which are an ideal system for direct visualization of blood stem cells and have conserved genetics, and
complemented using human cells for mechanistic validation. I hypothesize that an early Wnt/Fzd cue regulates
later HSC amplification, which has an impact on adult HSC homeostasis. In particular, I believe that this cue is
driven by a novel receptor complex. I propose to test this hypothesis by 1. Characterizing how this receptor
complex leads to a Wnt signal using real-time visualization of these proteins. 2. Discovering how this affects
HSC homeostasis in the adult by removing this early cue.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10161595
- **Project number:** 3R00HL133458-04S2
- **Recipient organization:** SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Stephanie Laura Grainger
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $48,264
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-09-13 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10161595

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10161595, The Role of Wnt Signaling in Normal and Abnormal Hematopoiesis (3R00HL133458-04S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10161595. Licensed CC0.

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