The Slukvin Laboratory
Faculty > Igor I. Slukvin
Igor I. Slukvin
Associate Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
islukvin@wisc.edu
Organ System/Disease Focus
Blood development/disease
Aligned Research Focus
Hematopoietic and endothelial development from human pluripotent stem cells, hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) biology
Research Description
Pluripotent stem (PS) cells, including embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, represent a unique population of cells capable of self-renewal and differentiation. Pluripotent stem cells can form any cell type in the body and serve as a scalable cell source for transplantation and tissue engineering. The main focus of my research is to establish the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into hematopoietic progenitors and mature blood cells in order to understand molecular mechanisms of early hematopoietic differentiation and provide a novel source of cells for bone marrow transplantation, transfusion and cancer immunotherapy. Recently we developed methods for efficient differentiation of PS cells into myelomonocytic and erythroid cells and identified the hierarchy of mesodermal and hematoendothelial progenitors leading to the formation of blood cells and hematopoiesis-supportive elements. In addition, we developed technologies for efficient reprogramming of normal and neoplastic blood cells into iPS cells. Currently my laboratory is working on 1) identification of genes essential for acquisition of long-term engraftment potential by pluripotent stem cell-derived hematopoietic cells; 2) establishing non-human primate models of ES cell and iPS cell-based cellular therapy for blood and immune system disorders; 3) developing iPS cell based models for blood cancer stem cell development.
Selected References
Hu K, Yu J, Suknuntha K, Tian S, Montgomery K, Choi KD, Stewart R, Thomson JA, Slukvin II. Efficient generation of transgene-free induced pluripotent stem cells from normal and neoplastic bone marrow and cord blood mononuclear cells. Blood. 2011 117(14):e109-119.
Vodyanik MA, Yu J, Zhang X, Tian S, Stewart R, Thomson JA, Slukvin II. A mesoderm-derived precursor for mesenchymal stem and endothelial cells. Cell Stem Cell 2010 Dec 3;7(6):718-29
Choi KD, Vodyanik MA, Slukvin II. Generation of mature human myelomonocytic cells through expansion and differentiation of pluripotent stem cell–derived lin-CD34+CD43+CD45+ progenitors. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2009;119(9):2818-29.
Yu J, Vodyanik MA, Smuga-Otto K, Antosiewicz-Bourget J, Frane JL, Tian S, Nie J, Jonsdottir GA, Ruotti V, Stewart R, Slukvin II, Thomson JA. Induced pluripotent stem cell lines derived from human somatic cells. Science. 2007; 318(5858): 1917-20.
Vodyanik MA, Thomson JA, Slukvin II. Leukosialin (CD43) defines hematopoietic progenitors in human embryonic stem cell differentiation cultures. Blood 108(6):2095-2105. 2006.