The Gillette Lab

Research Interests

Research in the Gillette Laboratory explores the mechanisms of cell communication within the bone marrow microenvironment that regulate healthy and malignant hematopoietic cells. The bone marrow provides the regulatory microenvironment or niche for the proliferation and survival of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which give rise to all blood and immune cells. HSPCs traffic between the blood circulation and the bone marrow moving in and out of niche sites where they interact with soluble and adhesive components of the marrow. These interactions provide cues for HSPC proliferation, quiescence, survival and trafficking. Moreover, specific leukemias, such as acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), arise from mutations within HSPC populations, resulting in cancer stem cells that traffic to the bone marrow where they are often quiescent and chemoresistant, leading to disease relapse.

Utilizing cutting edge imaging techniques and in vivo preclinical models, our laboratory takes a combinatorial approach toward understanding how healthy stem cells and malignant cells are recruited to and signal within the bone marrow, which we anticipate will offer new possibilities in the fields of bone marrow transplantation and regenerative medicine and in future treatments for leukemia.