S1E65 - Helen Blau - Stem Cells, Scientific Advancements and Women In Science
Internationally celebrated scientist Helen Blau focuses in on and elucidates the frontiers of stem cell research and her own singularly important work in her Stanford based lab and the company she co-founded. From longevity and replenishing and replacing stem cells, the conversation ranged on to an exploration of telomeres, CRISPR, and cloning and Dr. Blau's personal history as a woman scientist and historic and ongoing challenges women in science face as well as research of Dr. Blau's on muscle deterioration and muscle loss and ways to maintain muscle strength. Another wide-ranging, rich and expansive conversation with live questions from listeners.
Biography
Helen M. Blau, Ph.D. is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor and Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University. Dr. Blau was born in London and is a dual citizen of the United States and Great Britain. She earned a B.A. from the University of York, England and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the Departments of Biochemistry and Biophysics and the Division of Medical Genetics at the University of California, San Francisco, she joined the faculty at Stanford.
Dr. Blau is world-renowned for her early work on nuclear reprogramming and demonstration of the plasticity of cell fate using cell fusion. Her lab has embraced multidisciplinary approaches to characterize the potent muscle stem cell (MuSC) population that is poised to repair muscle throughout life. Blau’s innovation has led to 20 patents, garnered an NIH MERIT Award, an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, an NIH EUREKA Grant for Exceptionally Innovative Research, and generous funding from the Li Ka Shing Foundation and the Milky Way Foundation. A major emphasis of her work is to promote healthspan through rejuvenation of muscle stem cells and tissues. A hallmark of her work is the development of interdisciplinary technologies that enable novel fundamental insights.
Blau’s lab recently made the striking discovery that aged muscle stem cells and tissues can be rejuvenated and neuromuscular connectivity and muscle strength increased by targeting a single enzyme, 15-PGDH, the Prostaglandin E2 degrading enzyme, which she termed a gerozyme, a pivotal molecular determinant of aging. These findings hold promise for translation to the clinic to augment strength in patients with heritable neuromuscular dystrophies, disuse atrophy, and sarcopenia.
Blau is dedicated to service. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of International Society for Stem Cell Research (2022-2025) and the Board of Directors of the International Society of Regenerative Biology (2023-2025). She was elected lifetime membership in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, an 80 member international scientific body that advises the Pope (2017- ). She served on the Harvard Board of Overseers (2004--2010) and on the Council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2015-2023), Council of the National Academy of Medicine ( 2004-2009) Council of the National Institutes on Aging of the NIH (1996-2000 ). She is an elected member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Sciences.
https://profiles.stanford.edu/helen-blau
Conversation recorded on January 5, 2024.