Principal Investigator George Daley
Project Website http://daley.med.harvard.edu/Daley_Lab_Differentiation.htm
Differentiation is the process of cellular maturation wherein primitive tissue stem and progenitor cells progress developmentally to their ultimate, terminally functional state. This process follows an incredibly complex array of genetic and enviromental cues. The central thrust within the field of developmental biology seeks to understand differentiation in temporal and molecular detail. This research is not only scientifically fascinating, but also suggest avenues by which the directed differentiation of pluripotent cells might be undertaken in order to generate functional, therapeutically-relevant cells from a primitive, pluripotent stem cell starting point. Such works bears a great deal of promise to narrow the gap between donor availability and the number of patients in need of cell and tissue replacement therapies.
The Daley laboratory maintains active projects in basic molecular embryology, the specification of blood-forming or hematopoietic tissue, germ cell specification, genomic imprinting, and the hemangioblast. These projects also come to bear upon problems of abnormal development in malignancy as well as rare congenital diseases.