Our Research

The lab's current research is aimed primarily at understanding how hematopoietic stem cells interact with their microenvironment in order to subsequently modulate these interactions to ultimately improve bone marrow transplantation and unlock biological secrets that further enable regenerative medicine broadly. We are primarily focused on studying the cell surface receptors on hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and bone marrow stromal cells, and are actively learning how manipulating these can alter cell state and cell fate.  

There are many exciting opportunities that stem from this work across a variety of disease states ranging from rare genetic diseases, autoimmune diseases, solid organ transplantation, microbiome and cancer. While we are primarily focused on blood and immune diseases, the expanded potential of this work is much broader and can be applied to other organ systems as well and we are very eager to develop collaborations across disease areas. The Czechowicz lab hopes to further add in the field of translation research.

Goals

• We aim to increase our understanding of the basic science principles that govern these cells and then exploit these findings to develop improved therapies for patients
• We are particularly focused on pediatric non-malignant bone marrow transplantation with a strong interest in genetic blood/immune diseases and bone marrow failure, but do complementry work on solid tumors with marrow disease, solid organ tolerance induction, autoimmune diseases and gene therapy/gene editing.

• Non-genotoxic conditioning for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using a hematopoietic-cell-specific internalizing immunotoxin NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY
  Palchaudhuri, R., Saez, B., Hoggatt, J., Schajnovitz, A., Sykes, D. B., Tate, T. A., Czechowicz, A., Kfoury, Y., Ruchika, F. N., Rossi, D. J., Verdine, G. L., Mansour, M. K., Scadden, D. T.
  2016; 34 (7): 738-?
  
  
• A trial of plerixafor adjunctive therapy in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation with minimal conditioning for severe combined immunodeficiency PEDIATRIC TRANSPLANTATION
  Dvorak, C. C., Horn, B. N., Puck, J. M., Czechowicz, A., Shizuru, J. A., Ko, R. M., Cowan, M. J.
  2014; 18 (6): 602-608
  
  
• A trial of alemtuzumab adjunctive therapy in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation with minimal conditioning for severe combined immunodeficiency PEDIATRIC TRANSPLANTATION
  Dvorak, C. C., Horn, B. N., Puck, J. M., Adams, S., Veys, P., Czechowicz, A., Cowan, M. J.
  2014; 18 (6): 609-616
  
  
• In utero depletion of fetal hematopoietic stem cells improves engraftment after neonatal transplantation in mice BLOOD
  Derderian, S. C., Togarrati, P. P., King, C., Moradi, P. W., Reynaud, D., Czechowicz, A., Weissman, I. L., MacKenzie, T. C.
  2014; 124 (6): 973-980
  
  
• Anti-KIT monoclonal antibody inhibits imatinib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumor growth PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
  Edris, B., Willingham, S. B., Weiskopf, K., Volkmer, A. K., Volkmer, J., Muehlenberg, T., Montgomery, K. D., Contreras-Trujillo, H., Czechowicz, A., Fletcher, J. A., West, R. B., Weissman, I. L., van de Rijn, M.
  2013; 110 (9): 3501-3506
  
  

 More 

• Purified Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: The Next Generation of Blood and Immune Replacement HEMATOLOGY-ONCOLOGY CLINICS OF NORTH AMERICA
  Czechowicz, A., Weissman, I. L.
  2011; 25 (1): 75-?
  
  
• Inhibition of Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18) enhances tumor response to radiation by reducing myeloid cell recruitment PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
  Ahn, G., Tseng, D., Liao, C., Dorie, M. J., Czechowicz, A., Brown, J. M.
  2010; 107 (18): 8363-8368
  
  
• Purified Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: The Next Generation of Blood and Immune Replacement IMMUNOLOGY AND ALLERGY CLINICS OF NORTH AMERICA
  Czechowicz, A., Weissman, I. L.
  2010; 30 (2): 159-?
  
  
• Niche recycling through division-independent egress of hematopoietic stem cells JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE
  Bhattacharya, D., Czechowicz, A., Ooi, A. G., Rossi, D. J., Bryder, D., Weissman, I. L.
  2009; 206 (12): 2837-2850
  
  
• Efficient transplantation via antibody-based clearance of hematopoietic stem cell niches SCIENCE
  Czechowicz, A., Kraft, D., Weissman, I. L., Bhattacharya, D.
  2007; 318 (5854): 1296-1299
  
  
• Hematopoietic stem cell quiescence attenuates DNA damage response and permits DNA damage accumulation during aging CELL CYCLE
  Rossi, D. J., Seita, J., Czechowicz, A., Bhattacharya, D., Bryder, D., Weissman, I. L.
  2007; 6 (19): 2371-2376

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