Dan S. Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Medicine Mayo Graduate School, 1994, Ph.D. Mayo Medical School, 1996, M.D. kaufm020@umn.edu 612-624-0922: office 612-626-4758: lab

Research Interests:

Hematopoietic and endothelial cell development from embryonic stem cells

Research in my lab uses embryonic stem (ES) cells to understand the earliest stages of blood development. Individuals produce billions of blood cells every day. The stimuli and genes that allow individual hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) to produce mature progeny such as red blood cells, white blood cells, lymphocytes and platelets has been studied in considerable depth and serves as a model system in developmental biology. However, how the multipotent HSCs is derived during embryogenesis remains poorly understood, especially in the human system. My studies focus on this on this beginning stage of blood development: the transition from embryonic stem cell to hematopoietic stem cell.

Research in my lab has defined a method to derive multiple types of mature blood cells from human ES cells. In vitro and in vivo models are used to elucidate both extracellular protein interactions and intracellular genetic regulation that impact these developmental pathways. Currently, studies are underway to better define the conditions that support hematopoietic cells by addition of specific cytokines and growth factors, overexpression of exogenous genes in the ES cells, and by manipulation of the stromal cells to identify the role of specific proteins. Another portion of my current research aims to determine the in vivo potential of the human ES cell-derived hematopoietic cells. Proof of an ES cell-derived HSC requires evidence of long-term multilineage engraftment in vivo. Other aspects of my research involve use of human and rhesus monkey ES cells to study endothelial cell development and characterization of potential hemangioblast cells that serve as a common precursor to blood and endothelial cells.

Kaufman lab website

Selected Recent Publications:

• Woll, Petter S. J.K. Morris, M.S. Painschab, R.K. Marcus, A.D. Kohn, T.L. Biechele, R.T. Moon, and D.S. Kaufman. 2008. Wnt signaling promotes hemato-endothelial cell development from human embryonic stem cells. Blood. 111: 122-131.

• Flynn, Catherine and Dan S. Kaufman. 2007. Donor Cell Leukemia: Insight into cancer stem cells and the stem cell niche. Blood 109: 2688-2692.

• Wilber, Andrew, Jonathan L. Linehan, Xinghui Tian, Petter S. Woll, Julie K. Morris, Lalitha R. Belur, R. Scott McIvor, and Dan S. Kaufman. 2007. Use of the Sleeping Beauty Transposon System for Genetic Engineering of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-derived Hematopoietic Cells. Stem Cells, 25; 2919-2927.

• Tian X., P.S. Woll, J.K. Morris, J.L. Linehan, and Dan S. Kaufman. 2006. Hematopietic Engraftment of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Blood Cells is Regulated by Host Innate Immunity. Stem Cells 24:1370-80.

• Cameron, CM, W-S. Hu, and DS. Kaufman. 2006. Improved Development of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Embryoid Bodies by Stirred Vessel Cultivation. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 94: 938-948.     

• Hematti, Peiman,  Petra Obrtlikova,, and Dan S. Kaufman. 2005. Nonhuman Primate Embryonic Stem Cells as a Pre-clinical Model for Hematopoietic and Vascular Repair. Exp Hematol, 2005, 33: 980-986.

• Martin, Colin H.  and Dan S. Kaufman. 2005. Synergistic use of adult and embryonic stem cells to study human hematopoiesis. Curr Opin Biotechnol. 16: 510-515.

• Woll, Petter S., Colin H. Martin, Jeffrey S. Miller, and Dan S. Kaufman. 2005. Human embryonic stem cell-derived natural killer cells acquire functional receptors and cytolytic activity. J. Immunol. 175: 5095-5103.

•  Schwartz, R. , J. Linehan,  M.  Painschab, W.-S. Hu, C. M. Verfaillie, and D. S. Kaufman. 2005. Defined conditions for development of functional hepatic cells from human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells and Development,14: 643-55.

• Kaufman, Dan S., Rachel L. Lewis, Eric T. Hanson, Robert Auerbach, Johanna Plendl, and James A. Thomson. 2004. Functional Endothelial Cells Derived From Rhesus Monkey Embryonic Stem Cells. Blood, 103:1325-1332.

• Tian, Xinghui., Julie Morris, Jon. Linehan, and Dan S. Kaufman. 2004. Cytokine requirements differ for stroma and embryoid body-mediated mediated hematopoiesis from human embryonic stem cells. Exp Hematol, 2004, 32:1000-1009.

• Kaufman, Dan S., Eric T. Hanson, Rachel L. Lewis, Robert Auerbach, and James A. Thomson. 2001. Hematopoietic colony-forming cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 98:10716-10721.

• Odorico, Jon S., Dan S. Kaufman, and James A. Thompson. 2001. Multilineage differentiation from human embryonic stem cell lines. Stem Cells. 19:193-204.

Last modified on: January 8, 2008