Blau lab, past and present, meet at the 2022 FASEB Skeletal Muscle Stem Cells and Regeneration Conference in New Orleans

Current and past members of the Blau lab met to discuss their work and reconnect at the FASEB Myogenesis meeting held July 24-29, 2022 in New Orleans.

Elena Monti presents Rejuvenating aged skeletal muscle by targeting a gerozyme at the 2022 BAAM at UCSF

Elena Monti presented work describing the activity of the gerozyme 15-PGDH in muscle aging and regeneration during the "Rejuvenation / clock / reproductive aging" session of the 2022 Bay Area Aging Meeting held December 8, 2022 at UCSF in the Robertson Auditorium at the Mission Bay Conference Center.

Old mice regain leg strength after antibody treatment, Stanford Medicine researchers find

Old muscle stem cells express high levels of the cancer-associated molecule CD47. Blocking a pathway mediated by CD47 restored strength to old mice in a Stanford Medicine study.

Dan Robinson awarded Best PhD Thesis by the University of Ottawa

His doctoral thesis identified a novel implication of the Negative Elongation Factor (NELF) complex on regulating gene expression during terminal differentiation of myogenic progenitors.

"Plasticity of muscle stem cells in homeostasis and aging" published

In this review article published in Curr Opin Genet Dev Ermelinda Porpiglia and Helen Blau review recent findings on the role of the niche, or tissue microenvironment, in the modulation of muscle stem cell plasticity and the mechanisms responsible for the drastic loss of stem cell function with aging.

Asuka Eguchi speaks at CVI Early Career Symposium

Blau lab Instructor Asuka Eguchi, PhD, presented her work in a lightening talk entitled Toward Safer Gene Therapy Strategies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute's 2022 Early Career Symposium.

Blau lab hosts M&I “Regenerating Happy Hour"

The Blau lab will host the weekly M&I happy hour on Friday, October 7th from 4-6pm on Discovery Walk. The Blau lab will be serving special elixirs, classic drinks and snacks! Thanks to Dan and Elena for organizing.

Helen Blau Speaks at CVI Frontiers in Cardiovascular Science Seminar Series

She delivered an hour long seminar Regenerating and Rejuvenating Aged Muscles by Targeting a “Gerozyme” to a packed room on September 13, 2022. The talk focused on the Blau’s lab discovery that elevated 15-PGDH, the Prostaglandin E2 degrading enzyme, is a hallmark of aged muscle and other tissues.

Leahlyn Mamuyac presents at the Stanford CVI 2022 Summer Research Symposium

Leahlyn's talk was entitled Microdystrophin gene therapy for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy cardiomyocytes and it provided insights into her data comparing the ability of three dystrophin variants that are currently in clinical trials to rescue DMD-associated pathological phenotypes in cardiomyocytes differentiated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

Adriana, Aarushi, and Asuka present their data at the 2022 BioX Summer Poster Session

High School intern Aarushi, undergraduate Adriana, and postdoc mentor Asuka each presented their data on August 26, 2022 a part of the BioX Summer Research poster session.

Ian Stancil awarded T32 from the Buck Institute

Blau lab postdoctoral fellow Ian Stancil was awarded a spot on the Buck Institute's prestigious T32 Training in basic research on aging and age-related disease fellowship training program.

Dan Robinson and Minas Nalbandian awarded travel fellowships

Blau lab postdoctoral fellows Dan Robinson and Minas Nalbandian were each awarded a travel fellowship to present their data at the 2022 FASEB Myogenesis meeting. Dan's award was sponsored by FASEB, while Minas received support from the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute's Travel Grant program.

Asuka Eguchi awarded a Career Development Grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association

Asuka Eguchi was awarded a prestigious Development Grant from the MDA for her proposal Microdystrophin Design for the Treatment of Dystrophin-Deficient Cardiomyocytes.

Will Wang speaks in the Myogenesis Discussion group sponsored by Medicine by Design at the University of Toronto

Will's talk was entitled A Single Cell Spatial Temporal Atlas of Skeletal Muscle Reveals Cellular Neighborhoods that Orchestrate Regeneration and Become Distrupted in Aging.

Madl et al., published in Biomaterials

Madl et al. developed a photoresponsive hydrogel system that can be rapidly softened on demand, and showed that the cellular response to a stiff microenvironment is fixed within the first three days of culture. Their data highlight the importance of temporally controlled biophysical and biochemical cues in regulating MuSC fate, and demonstrate how they can be harnessed to improve regenerative medicine approaches to restore skeletal muscle tissue.