Lee Grimes Lab

Boldly Standing Up for Science. With science under political attack and federal funding threatened, ASH stepped up to #Fight4Hematology as never before. The 2025 Annual Report has the full story. 🔗 ow.ly/cqsV50YvOof #ResearchSavesLives

MYELOID2026 Time to figure out the agenda and happy to be joined by @lindemilesphd

News for marrow failure researchers. The DOD program is back! cdmrp.health.mil/pubs/press/202…

ASH ARCH (the new Bridge award applicants have been asking for clarification on the "qualitative statement describing risk status". This is a one‑page opportunity for the applicant to describe any circumstances that place their ongoing research program or career trajectory at risk. Examples may include: Funding that has been restricted, reduced, exhausted, or disallowed based on their research focus; Resources or support that are expected to run out in the near term; Institutional, departmental, or structural changes that may limit their ability to secure or maintain support; or Any other factors that could meaningfully affect the stability or sustainability of their research. This section is intentionally flexible — applicants may frame it in whatever way best reflects the risks they consider most relevant

Real funding numbers at NIH for 2025. report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/re…

We are proud to share that Takanori Takebe, MD, PhD, has been named to the 2026 @TIME 100 Health List of the World’s Most Influential Leaders in Health — becoming the first scientist from Cincinnati Children’s to receive this honor. Learn more: ow.ly/zAes50YcR5F @TakebeLab

Is your funding for hematology research "Between a rock and a hard place" #fightforhematology funds from ASH members and fans now provide a new program: A R C H hematology.org/awards/career-… NOTE: Are you doing well? .....your donations go 100% to lab support in the ARCH program.

Want to know the difference between a healthy stem cell and a stressed stem cell. Check out our latest story at Cell Stem Cell https://org/doi/10.1016/j.stem.2025.12.018. This was a great team effort with outstanding collaborators @LeeGrimesLab, @nsalomonis, @dalessandrolab.

Remarkably, HSCs with past divisions can be functionally reversed with metabolite replacement using the product of branched chain amino acid catabolism, alpha-ketoisocaproate, both in vitro and in vivo. Hence, accrued divisions generate a pool of HSCs that retain stem-like features but undergo functional and molecular drift. The functional drift is driven by cell-intrinsic changes in nutrient usage. Importantly, metabolite replacement is sufficient to restore HSC functions, which has long-term clinical implications for HSC regenerative medicine. Congratulations to @MarieDo95228975 and her team.

Mechanistically, division-associated HSC functional alterations are driven by changes in metabolic activity, due to reduced branched chain amino acid transaminase activity. HSC with full regenerative potential oxidize BCAA to slow down the cell cycle and maintain their function. HSC with past division history use BCAA to activate mTOR and drive nucleotide synthesis for accelerated cell cycle.

Do HSC really ‘self renew’ or do celllular divsions take a toll and functionally impact HSC biology? Check out the latest story from @MarieDo95228975 and collaborators @dalessandrolab and us (@LeeGrimesLab, @nsalomonis). Filippi lab shows that divisional stress produces a pool of HSCs that retain stem-like features but undergo functional and molecular drift through reduced branched chain amino acid transaminase activity ; however, such HSC can be functionally rescued in vitro or in vivo by alpha-ketoisocaproate. Now live at Cell Stem Cell authors.elsevier.com/c/1mRJc6tu0Ctj…

@KharasLab @GauravA_UK @bloodgenes @_ruslansoldatov @AbdelWahablab @AlexBickMDPhD very cool. Congrats.

Check out our latest story science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…! Huge thanks to @GauravA_UK and the @bloodgenes lab for driving this work forward together with us. This was a great team effort with outstanding collaborators @_ruslansoldatov, @AbdelWahablab, and @AlexBickMDPhD.

Early Bird pricing till January 15th. Register now for the "Fifteenth International Workshop On Molecular Aspects Of Myeloid Stem Cell Development & Leukemia". myeloidmeeting.org

#ASH25 Goodbye ASH25!!

On my way to the Beutler I passed this young scientist getting a pic with her name on the awards list. It meant a lot to her

#ASH25 Trainees presenting this year got the abstract achievement award to help out with their travel expenses. How many? Just look:

E Donnal Thomas prize starting now in D2

You can Stand Up For Science too by giving to the ASH Foundation, keeping going with your research and curing patients of blood disease.

How much does this matter? A lot to all these individuals.

#ASH25 Donors to the ASH Foundation big (shown here) and small support awards to keep hematology research going in tough times