# Investigating the heterogeneity and coordination of hematopoietic stem cells

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2020 · $950,481

## Abstract

Project Summary:
 Stem cells replenish tissues and organs over an organism’s lifetime and can repair damage after injury.
With their special capacities for self-renewal and differentiation, stem cells promise to revolutionize medicine.
To develop better and safer stem cell therapies, it is critically important to improve the understanding of stem
cell regulation. Most of the knowledge about stem cell regulation comes from studies that investigate the
aggregate behaviors of thousands to millions of stem cells. However, recent studies suggest that individual
hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) behave substantially differently from one another in both mice and humans.
These newly discovered inter-cellular differences present exciting new opportunities for studying HSC
regulation. However, they also present significant technical challenges that are difficult to address with
conventional approaches. The proposed research program will use a novel systems biology approach
combined with quantitative single-cell analysis to determine the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying
HSC heterogeneity and coordination, as well as their influences on aging and the pathogenesis of
hematopoietic diseases. Many hematopoietic diseases—such as bone marrow failure, myeloproliferative
disorders, myelodysplastic syndromes and other age-associated hematopoietic problems—are initiated by rare
cells. The proposed research program will map the precise pathogenesis of these diseases and identify
disease founder clones and genes using newly developed single cell tracking and molecular profiling
technologies. With these technical advances, the proposed research will also produce new fundamental
knowledge about blood regeneration, the foundation of bone marrow transplantation. The long-term objective
is to apply the knowledge obtained from the proposed basic research to control blood regeneration for
therapeutic use, to detect leukemia and other clonal diseases at early stages, and to effectively treat diseases
with advanced stem cell therapies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9894612
- **Project number:** 1R35HL150826-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Rong Lu
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $950,481
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2027-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9894612

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9894612, Investigating the heterogeneity and coordination of hematopoietic stem cells (1R35HL150826-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9894612. Licensed CC0.

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