Group Leader:
Georges Lacaud
I graduated as a biotechnology engineer from the European Biotechnology School of Strasbourg (ESBS) in Strasbourg, France. I obtained my PhD from the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg, France and then did a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Jewish Medical Center in Denver, Colorado, USA studying early lymphoid cell development in Prof. Gordon Keller’s lab. I next moved to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY, USA where I worked on early hematopoietic development. In 2003, I joined the Paterson Institute for Cancer Research as a junior group leader and I currently head the Stem Cell Biology group.
Postdoctoral Fellows:
Christophe Lancrin
Flor Perez-Campo
Cristina Ferreras
Michael Lie-A-Ling
Graduate Students:
Olga Tsoulaki
Monika Antkiewicz
Milena Mazan
Stem Cell Biology Group - A new model of haematopoietic development
We performed a series of studies to determine the cellular and molecular events leading to the generation of blast colony from BL-CFC. Our data demonstrate that the haemangioblast generates haematopoietic cells through the formation of a haemogenic endothelium intermediate, providing the first direct link between these two precursor populations. This haemogenic endothelial cell population is transiently generated during blast development and is also detected in gastrulating embryos. At the molecular level, we have demonstrated that the transcription factor SCL/TAL1 is indispensable for the establishment of this haemogenic endothelium cell population from the haemangioblast whereas RUNX1/AML1 is critical for generation of haematopoietic cells from this haemogenic endothelium. These results indicate that the two a priori conflicting theories on the origin of haematopoietic development, haemangioblast and haemogenic endothelium, can be merged into a single linear developmental process leading to the formation of the first committed haematopoietic precursors.
