Paul Kingsley, Ph.D.

Research in his laboratory utilizes a variety of approaches to investigate embryonic hematopoiesis. Formation of blood is a critical early event for mammalian embryos, initially occurring in the extraembryonic yolk sac of the gastrulating embryo, then migrating to the fetal liver, and finally homing to the bone marrow at the end of gestation. They are using subtractive hybridization and degenerate PCR to identify gene family members involved in specification, expansion, mobilization and migration of hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors.

An alternate approach they use is genechip technology (Affymetrix), where tens of thousands of gene products are evaluated quantitatively for expression in different regions of the developing embryo. Target tissues include microdissected regions from early murine embryos as well as embryonic cells triple-sorted for known hematopoietic/angiogenic surface markers. The spatial and temporal expression patterns of candidate genes are confirmed by in situ hybridization to both whole embryos and sections of embryonic tissues. The function of candidate molecules are tested using a variety of in vitro and in vivo model systems.

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