Aging of the hematopoietic stem cell niche

M Carolina Florian, will present tomorrow the latest research on the topic Aging of the hematopoietic stem cell niche at the worlds’ largest annual Aging Research and Drug Discovery conference (8th ARDD). She is the leader of the Stem Cell Aging group of the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the Regenerative Medicine Program of Catalonia (P-CMR [C]).

At ARDD, leaders in the aging, longevity, and drug discovery field will describe the latest progress in the molecular, cellular and organismal basis of aging and the search for interventions. Furthermore, the meeting will include opinion leaders in AI to discuss the latest advances of this technology in the biopharmaceutical sector and how this can be applied to interventions. Notably, this year acrivities include a workshop specifically for physicians where the leading-edge knowledge of clinical interventions for healthy longevity will be described. ARRD intends to bridge clinical, academic and commercial research and foster collaborations that will result in practical solutions to one of humanity’s most challenging problems: aging. The conference proceedings of the ARDD are commonly published in peer-reviewed journals with the talks openly available at www.agingpharma.org.

Florian holds a PhD from the University of Milano. She pursued postdoctoral training at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Ulm University from 2009 to 2015. In 2016, she was awarded an Emmy Noether Grant from the German Research Foundation dedicated to outstanding early-career researchers. This grant supported the establishment of her independent research team on Epigenetics of Stem Cell Aging.

Her research in the past 5 years strongly challenged the concept that aging is an irreversible process and showed that it is possible to pharmacologically target the aged-dependent alteration of stem cell epigenetic polarity and functionally rejuvenate aged HSCs in vivo.

Somatic stem cells are central for tissue homeostasis and regeneration. Their age-dependent functional decline constitutes a hallmark of tissue attrition upon aging, eventually limiting health-span and lifespan. Dr. Florian’s work is committed to further grow the understanding of alterations affecting aged somatic stem cells and she is investigating changes of the epigenetic architecture that drive stem cell aging, to improve tissue attrition with age or even to prevent aging-associated diseases.