Research interests

The long-term research goal of my laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell self-renewal, and differentiation of hematopoietic and endothelial lineages. Both adult and embryonic stem (ES) cells hold great potential for regenerative medicine, and gene therapy. Defining the molecular links between differentiation outcomes will provide important information for designing rational methods of stem cell manipulation.  We will (i) characterize ES cell-derived hematopoietic and endothelial progenitors as a renewable resources for in vivo studies in animal models, (ii) use ES cells as a model system to explore the relationships of vasculogenesis and hematopoiesis, and elucidate the molecular mechanisms that control fate determination, (iii) use mouse model to study microenvironment (niche) of hematopoietic stem cells.

Publications

• Zhang H and Wang ZZ. Mechanisms that mediate stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. J Cell Biochem 103(3):709-18, 2008.
• Bai H and Wang ZZ. Directing human embryonic cells to generate vascular progenitor cells. Gene Ther 15(2):89-95, 2008.
• Chen K, Wu L, and Wang ZZ. Extrinsic regulation of cardiomyocyte differentiation of embryonic stem cells. J Cell Biochem 104:119-28, 2008.
• Chen T, Bai H, Shao Y, Arzigian M, Janzen V, Attar E, Xie Y, Scadden DT and Wang ZZ. Stromal cell-derived factor-1/CXCR4 signaling modifies the capillary-like organization of human embryonic stem cell-derived endothelium in vitro. Stem Cells 25:392-401, 2007.
• Wang ZZ*, Au P, Chen T, Shao Y, Daheron LM, Bai H, Arzigian M, Fukumura D, Jain RK* and Scadden DT*. Endothelial cells derived from human embryonic stem cells form durable blood vessels in vivo. Nat Biotechnol. 25:317-8, 2007 (*corresponding authors).
• Li ZJ, Wang Z, Zheng YZ, Xu B, Yang RC, Scadden DT and Han HC. Kinetic Expression of Platelet Endothelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 (PECAM-1/CD31) during Embryonic Stem Cell differentiation. J Cell Biochem 95:559-70, 2005.
• Wang Z., Shao Y., Cohen K., Mole P., Dombkowski D. and Scadden DT. Ephrin receptor, EphB4, regulates ES cell differentiation of primitive mammalian hemangioblasts, blood, cardiomyocytes, and blood vessels. Blood 103:100-9, 2004.
• Wang Z, Miura N, Bonelli A, Mole P, Carlesso N, Olson DP, Scadden DT. Receptor tyrosine kinase, EphB4 (HTK), accelerates differentiation of select human hematopoietic cells. Blood 99:2740-7, 2002.