Director, Stem Cell Institute
Dr. Verfaillie is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation and Director of the Stem Cell Institute.
She holds the Anderson Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Tulloch Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Genetics and Genomics, and the McKnight's Presidential Chair in Stem Cell Biology.
The major research interest of Dr. Verfaillie’s lab is stem cell biology. This includes studies pertaining to the regulation of proliferation, differentiation and lineage commitment of normal hematopoietic stem cells and hematopoietic stem cells from patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia by cytokines and components of the extracellular matrix; as well as genetic characterization of hematopoietic stem cells and their progenitors. In addition, over the last four years she has studied plasticity of stem cells, via purification, expansion and characterization of differentiation of multipotential post-natal stem cells from marrow, brain and muscle to mesodermal, ectodermal and endodermal lineages; analysis of the molecular signals required for commitment to differentiated multipotent stem cell types by functional genomics; and evaluation of their therapeutic potential in congenital disorders (MPS, Gaucher's, hemophilia) or for the treatment of cartilage, muscular, vascular, myocardial diseases, neurodegenerative and ischemic disorders disease, and liver or pancreas disorders.
Selected Publications
Gupta P, Dudek A, Slungaard A, Oegema T, Verfaillie CM. 6-0-sulfated heparin enhances IL3+MIP-1a mediated expansion of LTC-IC in stroma-free cultures. Blood 2000; 95:147-55.
Jiang Y, Prosper F, Verfaillie CM. Opposing effects of engagement of integrins and stimulation of cytokine receptors on cell cycle progression of normal human hematopoietic progenitors. Blood 2000; 95:846-54.
Jiang Y, Zhao RCH, Verfaillie CM. Inactivation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, p27, is responsible for overriding the integrin-mediated inhibition of CML CD34+ cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2000; 97:10538-10543.
Verfaillie CM., Almeida-Porada G, Wissink S, Zanjani ED. Short- and long-term engraftment of CD34- and CD34+ cells from mobilized blood differs from that of CD34- and CD34+ cells from bone marrow. Exp Hematol 2000; 28:1071-9.
Verfaillie CM. Stem cell plasticity. Graft 2000; 3:296-8.
Lewis ID, Almeida-Porada G, Du J, Lemischka IR, Moore KA, Zanjani ED, Verfaillie CM. Umbilical cord blood cells capable of engrafting in primary, secondary, and tertiary xenogeneic hosts are preserved after ex vivo culture in a noncontact system. Blood 2001; 97:3441-9.
Zhao RC, Jiang Y, Verfaillie CM. A model of human p210(bcr/ABL)-mediated chronic myelogenous leukemia by transduction of primary normal human CD34(+) cells with a BCR/ABL-containing retroviral vector. Blood 2001; 97:2406-12.
Reyes M, Verfaillie CM. Characterization of multipotent adult progenitor cells, a subpopulation of mesenchymal stem cells. Ann NY Acad Sci 2001; 938:231-3; discussion 233-5.
Reyes M, Lund T, Lenvik T, Aguiar D, Koodie L, Verfaillie CM. Purification and ex vivo expansion of postnatal human marrow mesodermal progenitor cells. Blood 2001; 98:2615-25.
Reyes M, Dudek A, Jahagirdar B, Koodie L, Marker PH, Verfaillie CM. Origin of endothelial progenitors in human postnatal bone marrow. J Clin Invest 2002; 109:337-46.
Zhao LR, Duan WM, Reyes M, Keene CD, Verfaillie CM, Low WC. Human bone marrow stem cells exhibit neural phenotypes and ameliorate neurological deficits after grafting into the ischemic brain of rats. Exp Neurol 2002; 174:11-20.
Verfaillie CM. Hematopoietic stem cells for transplantation (Review). Nat Immunol 2002; 3:314-7 (Review).
Liu H, Verfaillie CM. Myeloid-lymphoid initiating cells (ML-IC) are highly enriched in the rhodamine-c-kit(+)CD33(-)CD38 (-) fraction of umbilical cord CD34(+) cells. Exp Hematol 2002; 30:582-9.
Brunstein CG, Hirsch BA, Hammerschmidt D, McGlennen RC, Nguyen PL, Verfaillie CM. Leukemia in donor cells after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Bone Marrow Transplant 2002; 29:999-1003.
Shet AS, Jahagirdar BN, Verfaillie CM. Chronic myelogenous leukemia: mechanisms underlying disease progression (Review). Leukemia 2002; 16:1402-11.
Verfaillie CM. Optimizing hematopoietic stem cell engraftment: a novel role for thrombopoietin (Review). J Clin Invest 2002; 110:303-4.
Verfaillie CM. Adult stem cells: assessing the case for pluripotency (Review). Trends Cell Biol 2002; 12:502-8.
Salesse S, Verfaillie CM. Mechanisms underlying abnormal trafficking and expansion of malignant progenitors in CML: BCR/ABL-induced defects in integrin function in CML (Review). Oncogene 2002; 21:8605-11.
Salesse S, Verfaillie CM. BCR/ABL-mediated increased expression of multiple known and novel genes that may contribute to the pathogenesis of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Mol Cancer Ther 2003; 2:173-82.
Keene CD, Ortiz-Gonzalez XR, Jiang Y, Largaespada DA, Verfaillie CM, Low WC. Neural differentiation and incorporation of bone marrow-derived multipotent adult progenitor cells after single cell transplantation into blastocyst stage mouse embryos. Cell Transplant 2003; 12:201-13.
Verfaillie CM, Schwartz R, Reyes M, Jiang Y. Unexpected potential of adult stem cells (Review). Ann NY Acad Sci 2003; 996:231-4.
Dahl E, Burroughs J, DeFor T, Verfaillie C, Weisdorf D. Progenitor content of autologous grafts: mobilized bone marrow vs mobilized blood. Bone Marrow Transplant 2003; 32:575-80.
Salesse S, Dylla SJ, Verfaillie CM. p210BCR/ABL- induced alteration of pre-mRNA splicing in primary human CD34+ hematopoietic progenitor cells. Leukemia 2004; 18:727-33.
Wagner JE, Verfaillie CM. Ex vivo expansion of umbilical cord blood hemopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Exp Hematol 2004; 32:412-3.
Melikova S, Dylla SJ, Verfaillie CM. Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase activation mediates proline-rich tyrosine kinase 2 phosphorylation and recruitment to beta1-integrins in human CD34+ cells. Exp Hematol 2004; 32:1051-6.
Barker JN, Weisdorf DJ, Defor TE, Blazar BR, McGlave PB, Miller JS, Verfaillie CM, Wagner JE. Transplantation of two partially HLA-matched umbilical cord blood units to enhance engraftment in adults with hematologic malignancy. Blood 2004 Oct 5; [Epub ahead of print]
Lakshmipathy U, Pelacho B, Sudo K, Linehan JL, Coucouvanis E, Kaufman DS, Verfaillie CM. Efficient transfection of embryonic and adult stem cells. Stem Cells 2004; 22:531-43.
Leung AY, Mendenhall EM, Kwan TT, Liang R, Eckfeldt C, Chen E, Hammerschmidt M, Grindley S, Ekker SC, Verfaillie CM. Characterization of expanded intermediate cell mass in zebrafish chordin morphant embryos. Dev Biol 2005; 277:235-54.
Lakshmipathy U, Verfaillie C. Stem cell plasticity. Blood Rev 2005; 19:29-38.