Cellular & Integrative Physiology Seminar – Yi Zhang, PhD

Yi Zhang, PhD

Fred Rosen Professor

Depts. of Genetics & Pediatrics

Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical Institute

• Title: “Targeted depletion of dysfunctional HSCs alleviates aging-related defects”

• Summary:  Aging is a process accompanied by functional decline in tissues and organs with great social and medical consequences. Developing effective anti-aging strategies is of great significance. Single cell transcriptome analyses revealed that while HSCs in young mice are homogenous, those from old mice are molecularly and functionally heterogenous. Importantly, the functionally defective HSCs prevent functional ones from functioning. Targeted depletion of the dysfunctional HSCs alleviates aging related functional decline in aged mice, suggesting that rather than looking for magic factors in young, removing dysfunctional cells could be an alternative for rejuvenation.  Ongoing work on how some of the HSCs become bad during aging will also be discussed.