Louise E. Purton | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of Melbourne |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Harvard University Massachusetts General Hospital |
Thesis | Characterisation studies of the stromal cell types present in bone marrow (1994) |
Louise E. Purton is an Australian biologist who is Professor of Medicine and head of the Stem Cell Regulation Laboratory at St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. Her research considers the stem cells responsible for the production of blood cells and the regulations of haematopoietic diseases. She was awarded the International Society for Experimental Hematology McCulloch & Till Award in 2022. [1] She has experienced profound bilateral hearing loss since the age of three and has been recognised for her work supporting Equity and Diversity, particularly amongst women and people with disability, and is a member of the AAMRI Gender, Equity and Diversity and Inclusion group GEDI. [2] [3]
Purton was raised in Balranald, NSW. At age three she became profoundly deaf after experiencing a life-threatening illness. She had Cochlear implants inserted in 2018 and 2021. [4] Purton was an undergraduate student at the University of Melbourne. She remained there for doctoral research, where she studied the stroll cell types in bone marrow. [5] She moved to the United States for postdoctoral research, where she worked at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and identified that the all-trans retinoic acid enhances the renewal of hematopoietic stem cells. [6] She returned to Australia in 2000, when she studied the roles of various retinoic acid receptors and their roles on haematopoiesis. She showed that self-renewal is regulated by Retinoic acid receptor gamma, and loss of this receptor has intrinsic and extrinsic impacts on haematopoiesis. [6] She returned to America in 2004, where she studied cells in the bone marrow microenvironment and how they could regulate myeloproliferative-like disorders. [6]
Purton's research is focused on processes involved in blood cell production (haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). [7] [8]
In 2008 Purton returned to Australia, where she launched the St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research Stem Cell Regulation Unity. [6] She investigates the processes involved in haematopoiesis, the production of blood cells. These processes involve hematopoietic stem cells, which can either self-renew or differentiate into more mature types. Issues surrounding the regulation of hematopoietic stem cells can lead to diseases such as leukaemia. Purton investigates the roles of retinoic acid receptors in haematopoiesis. She makes use of mouse models, cell assays and gene transduction. [9] Through these studies, she identified how blood cells are produced in bone marrow, which can impact the downstream treatment of blood cancer. [10]
Purton has studied the role of Homeobox A1 (HOXA1) in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a blood cell disease that results in bone marrow failure. Around 30% of patients with MDS progress to acute myeloid leukaemia, and the only treatment is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. She identified that altered HOXA1 genes impact the ability of haematopoietic stem cells. [11]
Purton was appointed Associate Editor of Experimental Hematology in 2020. [12]
Purton has worked to improve diversity within the scientific community. [10] She identified and publicised inequality in the rates of funding for men and women in Australia. [14] For example, she identified that the National Health and Medical Research Council awarded men 23% more grants ($95 million more funding) than their female counterparts. [15] [16] [17] She worked with Jessica Borger to launch a petition calling for a strategic overhaul of the NHMRC funding body. [15]
Haematopoiesis is the formation of blood cellular components. All cellular blood components are derived from haematopoietic stem cells. In a healthy adult human, roughly ten billion to a hundred billion new blood cells are produced per day, in order to maintain steady state levels in the peripheral circulation.
Aplastic anemia (AA) is a severe hematologic condition in which the body fails to make blood cells in sufficient numbers. Aplastic anemia is associated with cancer and various cancer syndromes. Blood cells are produced in the bone marrow by stem cells that reside there. Aplastic anemia causes a deficiency of all blood cell types: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
Erythropoiesis is the process which produces red blood cells (erythrocytes), which is the development from erythropoietic stem cell to mature red blood cell.
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are the stem cells that give rise to other blood cells. This process is called haematopoiesis. In vertebrates, the first definitive HSCs arise from the ventral endothelial wall of the embryonic aorta within the (midgestational) aorta-gonad-mesonephros region, through a process known as endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition. In adults, haematopoiesis occurs in the red bone marrow, in the core of most bones. The red bone marrow is derived from the layer of the embryo called the mesoderm.
Primary myelofibrosis (PMF) is a rare bone marrow blood cancer. It is classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a type of myeloproliferative neoplasm, a group of cancers in which there is activation and growth of mutated cells in the bone marrow. This is most often associated with a somatic mutation in the JAK2, CALR, or MPL genes. In PMF, the bony aspects of bone marrow are remodeled in a process called osteosclerosis; in addition, fibroblast secrete collagen and reticulin proteins that are collectively referred to as (fibrosis). These two pathological processes compromise the normal function of bone marrow resulting in decreased production of blood cells such as erythrocytes, granulocytes and megakaryocytes, the latter cells responsible for the production of platelets.
CD34 is a transmembrane phosphoglycoprotein protein encoded by the CD34 gene in humans, mice, rats and other species.
Extramedullary hematopoiesis refers to hematopoiesis occurring outside of the medulla of the bone. It can be physiologic or pathologic.
A promyelocyte is a granulocyte precursor, developing from the myeloblast and developing into the myelocyte. Promyelocytes measure 12–20 microns in diameter. The nucleus of a promyelocyte is approximately the same size as a myeloblast but their cytoplasm is much more abundant. They also have less prominent nucleoli than myeloblasts and their chromatin is more coarse and clumped. The cytoplasm is basophilic and contains primary red/purple granules.
Granulopoiesis is a part of haematopoiesis, that leads to the production of granulocytes. A granulocyte, also referred to as a polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN), is a type of white blood cell that has multi lobed nuclei, usually containing three lobes, and has a significant amount of cytoplasmic granules within the cell. Granulopoiesis takes place in the bone marrow. It leads to the production of three types of mature granulocytes: neutrophils, eosinophils and basophils.
Stem cell factor is a cytokine that binds to the c-KIT receptor (CD117). SCF can exist both as a transmembrane protein and a soluble protein. This cytokine plays an important role in hematopoiesis, spermatogenesis, and melanogenesis.
GATA2 or GATA-binding factor 2 is a transcription factor, i.e. a nuclear protein which regulates the expression of genes. It regulates many genes that are critical for the embryonic development, self-renewal, maintenance, and functionality of blood-forming, lympathic system-forming, and other tissue-forming stem cells. GATA2 is encoded by the GATA2 gene, a gene which often suffers germline and somatic mutations which lead to a wide range of familial and sporadic diseases, respectively. The gene and its product are targets for the treatment of these diseases.
Sean J. Morrison is a Canadian-American stem cell biologist and cancer researcher. Morrison is the director of Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI), a nonprofit research institute established in 2011 as a joint venture between Children’s Health System of Texas and UT Southwestern Medical Center. With Morrison as founding director, CRI was established to perform transformative biomedical research at the interface of stem cell biology, cancer and metabolism to better understand the biological basis of disease. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, has served as president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, U.S. National Academy of Sciences and European Molecular Biology Organization.
CFU-Meg is a colony forming unit. Haematopoiesis in the bone marrow starts off from a haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) and this can differentiate into the myeloid and lymphoid cell lineages. In order to eventually produce a megakaryocyte, the haematopoietic stem cell must generate myeloid cells, so it becomes a common myeloid progenitor, CFU-GEMM. This in turn develops into CFU-Meg, which is the colony forming unit that leads to the production of megakaryocytes.
The haematopoietic system is the system in the body involved in the creation of the cells of blood.
Many human blood cells, such as red blood cells (RBCs), immune cells, and even platelets all originate from the same progenitor cell, the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC). As these cells are short-lived, there needs to be a steady turnover of new blood cells and the maintenance of an HSC pool. This is broadly termed hematopoiesis. This event requires a special environment, termed the hematopoietic stem cell niche, which provides the protection and signals necessary to carry out the differentiation of cells from HSC progenitors. This stem-cell niche relocates from the yolk sac to eventually rest in the bone marrow of mammals. Many pathological states can arise from disturbances in this niche environment, highlighting its importance in maintaining hematopoiesis.
A nucleated red blood cell (NRBC), also known by several other names, is a red blood cell that contains a cell nucleus. Almost all vertebrate organisms have hemoglobin-containing cells in their blood, and with the exception of mammals, all of these red blood cells are nucleated. In mammals, NRBCs occur in normal development as precursors to mature red blood cells in erythropoiesis, the process by which the body produces red blood cells.
Stefan Karlsson is a Professor of Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy at the Lund Stem Cell Center, in the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University, Sweden. He is recognized for significant contributions to the fields of gene therapy and hematopoietic stem cell biology and in 2009 was awarded the Tobias Prize by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Christa Edith Muller-Sieburg was a German-American immunologist and hematologist, whose work became central to the understanding of the clonal heterogeneity of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Muller-Sieburg is known for her contributions to the purification of hematopoietic stem cells, the characterization of individual stem cell clones and her revision of the process of hematopoiesis.
COH04S1 is a covid vaccine developed by the City of Hope Medical Center. This vaccine targets patients who are immunocompromised; immunocompromised patients have often shown a weak antibody response to past COVID-19 vaccines. COH04S1 is also targeted on people who are at a high risk of COVID-19 complications. The City of Hope Medical Center strives to make a better option than the current EUA and FDA approved vaccines, which are not working as well on this group of individuals.
Beverly Jo Torok-Storb was an American physician who was Professor of Clinical Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Her work considered the stem cells that generate blood and the microenvironment of bone marrow.