Best oral presentation at the DSSCR meeting for Marieke Goedhart

PhD student Marieke Goedhart of the Adaptive Immunity Lab of Sanquin won one of the three awards for best oral presentation at the 9th annual meeting of the DSSCR (Dutch Society for Stem Cell Research), held on 22 April 2016 in Utrecht.

She presented her research entitled 'Chronic exposure to Interferon-gamma remodels the bone marrow stromal compartment'. With this research, she showed that bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are significantly reduced after chronic exposure to the pro-inflammatory cytokine IFN-gamma. MSC in the bone marrow are supporting cells for hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and keep these valuable stem cells quiescent, which is critical for maintaining a lifelong supply of blood cells. Marieke found that a loss of supporting MSC upon IFN-gamma exposure was accompanied by a loss of quiescent HSC, which may eventually lead to exhaustion of the hematopoietic compartment. This research thus provides valuable insights in the underlying mechanisms of inflammation induced anemia and bone marrow failure.