
Researcher Profiles

Monica Kasbekar, M.D., Ph.D.
Columbia University Medical Center
2024 Funding recipient
Molecular and functional consequences of age-associated inflammation on development of MDS
EvansMDS Young Investigator Award 2024
PROJECT SUMMARY
Blood production is controlled by stem cells that divide in the bone marrow to produce every type of blood cell. As individuals age, the stem cells of the blood system become less functional, leaving the elderly more susceptible to the development of blood cancers such as myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The goal of this proposal is to understand how inflammation affects the behavior of aging, pre-cancerous bone marrow stem cells and predisposes to the development of MDS. I will use human bone marrow stem cells of different ages, both normal and engineered to carry pre-cancerous genetic changes, to study how inflammation promotes cancerous evolution. I will employ several complementary methods to model the behavior of both normal and pre-cancerous human stem cells, including animal models designed to receive human stem cells and a surrogate of the bone marrow environment constructed in a dish. These efforts will develop our understanding of how age-related inflammation affects pre-cancerous stem cells, with the goal of identifying new therapies to mitigate the damaging effects of an aging bone marrow and prevent the development of MDS while preserving normal blood production.