Dr. Alison Nair, Dr. Ernest "Gene" Moore, and Scientist Mr. Dallas Vanderheyden
"The Interaction Between Endothelium and the Blood Components in Transfusion Responsible for Hemostasis."
Their team is developing an endothelial-based microfluidic system to study how blood vessel injury
impacts clotting biology. This model will allow them to analyze interactions between the endothelium
and key blood components (platelets, red cells, fibrinogen, plasma clotting factors), investigate how
dysfunction alters clot formation, and identify tissue-specific responses across organs such as the brain,
lung, liver, kidney, small bowel, and colon. Their work will provide new insights into post-trauma
hemostasis and help guide future therapeutic strategies. This project is a cross-institutional collaboration.
Dr. Nair is an Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Pediatrics, and Dr. Moore is a Distinguished
Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado Anschutz and the Ernest E. Moore Shock Trauma
Center at Denver Health. Mr. Dallas Vanderheyden, the lead scientist in Dr. Moore's lab, is spearheading
this collaboration.
Dr. Ruriko Watanabe, Dr. Anna Krasnodembskaya, Dr. Huimin Geng, Dr. Mazharul Maishan, and Dr. Michael Matthay
"To Test the Mechanisms and the Efficacy of Allogeneic Bone Marrow Derived MSCs in a Mouse Model Hypo-Inflammatory ARDS."
Research project focuses on advancing mesenchymal stromal cell(MSC) therapies for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Their preclinical data indicates that allogeneic human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) reduces the severity of acute lung injury in a mouse model of acute bacterial pneumonia that resembles the clinical syndrome, ARDS. The team is currently working on the mechanisms that explain the beneficial effects of the MSCs using flow cytometry, metabolomics, and spatial transcriptomics.
Dr. Kyle Cromer and Dr. Brian Shy
"Toward Universal Blood: CRISPR Screens to Enable Scalable RBC Manufacturing."
Research project focused on using genome-wide CRISPR screens to enable and advance scalable RBC manufacturing.
To address ongoing blood shortages and limitations in donor-dependent transfusions, their project applies genome-wide CRISPR screens directly in human hematopoietic stem cells, representing a major technical advance. Their goal is to identify genetic regulators that control two key bottlenecks in ex vivo red blood cell production: inefficient enucleation and the inability to grow cells at the high densities seen in bone marrow. Insights from these screens will drive genome engineering strategies that overcome current manufacturing barriers in an effort to make large-scale, affordable production of therapeutic red blood cells a reality.
Dr. Kelsey Collins, Dr. Edward Hsiao, and Dr. Kyle Cromer
"Designer Adipose Tissue: A Novel Stem Cell Theraрy Strategy for Osteoarthritis."
Osteoarthritis is a chronic and increasingly prevalent disease characterized by cartilage loss, pain, and metabolic disturbances such as obesity. Building on findings from the Collins Lab that pathological adipose signaling can drive osteoarthritis and pain in mice, the team is engineering "designer adipose" tissue from human induced pluripotent stem cells in collaboration with the Hsiao Lab and Stahl Lab (UC Berkeley), and using CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing guided by the Cromer Lab. The therapy will be tested in humanized mouse models and microphysiological systems, with potential applications beyond osteoarthritis, including Type II Diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and craniofacial reconstruction in cancer patients.
Dr. Huimin Geng and Dr. Ruriko Watanabe
"Spatial Transcriptomic and Proteomic Profiling to Identify Biomarkers of Lung Injury and MSC Therapу Responses in Hypo- and Hyper-inflammatory ARDS."
Project focused on advancing mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapies for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
The project aims to develop spatial transcriptomic and proteomic analysis pipelines to investigate how MSCs mitigate Streptococcus pneumoniae–induced ARDS in a preclinical mouse model developed by the Matthay Lab. The study will explore how different inflammatory subtypes (hypo- or hyper-inflammatory) respond to MSC treatment by identifying transcriptomic and proteomic changes in lung tissues. Spatial profiling using GeoMx DSP and IO Proteome Atlas (IPA) will help uncover MSC-responsive biomarkers across lung compartments, followed by single-cell spatial mapping with the Xenium platform. The findings will deepen our understanding of MSC mechanisms and support biomarker-driven therapeutic strategies for ARDS, with broad relevance to CTMCT-supported research.