simply blood

People often ask me what I like most about being a professor. While there are many rewarding aspects of being a PI, such as directing your own research program and training the next generation of scientists, I find travel to be the most enjoyable. This hasn’t always been the case. As a young adult, I dreaded travel and used to count down the number of days until I returned home. I think the change happened as a result of attending scientific conferences where I could learn the latest advances and meet others with similar interests. These days I attend many meetings to catch up with friends and hear the most recent breakthroughs in hematology research.   Most work related travel for trainees and early career investigators involves attending scientific conferences. These are important events that let you present your work, get helpful feedback, and extend your connections. Unfortunately, with decreases in funding and travel restrictions enacted by some institutions, in-person att...

This week on Simply Blood we are completing our 2025 Interview Spotlight Series. This final part features the ISEH 2025 Leadership in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award Winner:  Vanessa Scanlon, PhD.  Professor Scanlon discusses being an advocate in your day-to-day as a leader, her involvement in multiple summer research programs aimed at providing opportunities to students from underrepresented backgrounds, and advice for team leaders on fostering an inclusive environment.  Vanessa Scanlon, PhD Assistant Professor, Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Biology, UConn Health Assistant Professor Adjunct, Yale School of Medicine Blog post contributed by Gemma Kelly of the ISEH Junior Faculty Committee. Please note that the statements made by Simply Blood authors are their own views and not necessarily the views of ISEH. ISEH disclaims any or all liability arising from any author's statements or materials.

  Welcome to the Preprint Watch, where we highlight some of the latest and most interesting preprints for the ISEH community. In this issue, we’re highlighting preprints of note from June. If you'd like to submit your preprint, please complete this brief form.  STEM AND PROGENITOR CELLS BIOLOGY  Hematopoietic stem cells undergo bidirectional fate transitions in vivo https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.23.639689v2 From the authors: Sequential introduction of DNA barcodes in vivo was developed to assess time-dependent changes in cell fate. Clonal phylogenetic tracer (CP-tracer) enabled high-resolution phylogenetic analysis of ∼100,000 subclones derived from ∼500 individual hematopoietic stem cells (HSC). Bidirectional fate transitions between myeloid-biased haematopoietic stem cells (My-HSCs) and lineage-balanced haematopoietic stem cells (balanced-HSCs) were observed. Hhex was identified as a molecular driver of HSC lymphoid competence. GATA2 Mediates Macrophag...