Kathryn Erickson, B.S.
Graduate Research Assistant
Office: BME 5.416
erickskd@mail.utexas.edu

Research Focus: Hematopoietic Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

Currently, the cellular therapeutic field is greatly limited by the number of donor cell sources. The future success of cell therapy in the treatment of diseases is strongly dependent on the development of a widely available donor source. Due to their pluripotent and self-renewal capacity, stem cells are an extremely attractive source for cell therapy. The creation of a high-throughput culture system capable of driving the differentiation process of stem cells is critical for the ultimate clinical success of cellular therapeutics. In recent years, a variety of biomaterials have been utilized in stem cell cultures in an attempt to mimic the stem cell niche located in the bone marrow. The focus of my research is two-fold. Our first objective is to develop a biomaterial-based culture system, in the form of a hydrogel or scaffold, conducive to hematopoietic differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). The basic biology of the hematopoietic differentiation process and environment has not been studied in depth. In order to make strides in optimizing a high-throughput hematopoietic stem cell differentiation culture system, a detailed, molecular characterization of the HSC environment must be obtained and incorporated in cell culture systems. Our second objective is to study and characterize the genetic and molecular effects on mESCs when cultured in a fabricated bone marrow microenvironment.