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My Research:
     I want to know where blood comes from. Biologically, the blood (hematopoietic) system is fantastically intricate. The complexity of how it's regulated and responds to environmental stresses is on par with any other tissue or organ. All the parts of the body work together in a delicately balanced system of life. However, blood is among a select few parts of the body with additional, symbolic meaning. It is blood that is seen to carry our passions. It is blood that is used to identify our descendants (eg. our bloodline). It is blood that marks those among us with whom we enter into sacred kinships (eg. blood brothers). Literature contains abundant references to blood as a vehicle for understanding deeper human significance. As Sitwell said, "Blood is that fragile scarlet tree we carry with us." Works like Macbeth, The Blank Page (Karen von Blixen), and of course Dracula are just a few examples of how human kind sees blood as something more than cells and plasma pulsing through our vessels. Blood's metaphorical nature alone is worthy of study.
     That said, blood is clearly more than poetically significant. People have studied the blood, both healthy and otherwise, for centuries. From Paracelsus' comments on splenomegally in the 1500's to the famous clotting disease of the Romanovs in Russia (and other royal households), what blood does, and how it does it, is of great scientific and medical interest. My background is in genetics and my particular research tries to understand what genes are involved in blood cell production, how that happens at the earliest stages when the first blood cell is made from its non-blood precursor, and how the entire process goes astray in disease. I do this work using human pluripotent stem cells of many types.
     The specific use of pluripotent stem cells is key to my work for at least two reasons: (1) I am interested in understanding the pathophysiology of human genetic diseases of the blood and (2) pluripotent stem cells are capable of making any type of cell in our bodies, but have yet to do it; they are a blank slate. Adult blood stem cells are eventually made in nature from a cell like a pluripotent stem cell and I want to understand how that works. The incredible developmental plasticity of pluripotent stem cells makes them perfect platforms for studying how one cell (the fertilized egg) is able to divide and make all of the hundreds of different types of cells in our bodies. This is the central question of developmental biology.
      However, the use of human pluripotent stem cells for research has renewed a centuries old debate into what it means to be human and also how far science should be allowed to go in order to combat human frailty. As such, the consideration of areas beyond, yet impacting science is of keen interest to me. Ethics, philosophy, scientific conduct, public policy, history, and education are important things that I also do my best to study and be engaged with as part of my research.
     Finally, I have a growing interest in germ cell-related tumors including teratomas, teratocarcinomas, and similar masses as these naturally-occuring entities originate from pluripotent cells.
The Ontogeny of Blood Production
For a large version of my Hematopoiesis figure, click here
If you'd prefer Haematopoiesis, click here instead

Publications:
Click Here to Link to My Publications in PubMed at the National Library of Medicine
· Lensch MW. Cellular Reprogramming and Pluripotency Induction, Br Med Bull. 2009 Apr 17.
· Daley GQ, Lensch MW, Jaenisch R, Meissner A, Plath K, Yamanaka S. Broader implications of defining standards for the pluripotency of iPSCs, Cell Stem Cell. 2009 Mar 6;4(3):200-1.
· Park I-H, Arora N, Huo H, Maherali N, Ahfeldt T, Shimamura A, Lensch MW, Cowan C, Hochedlinger K, and Daley GQ. Disease-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Cell. 2008 Sep 5;134(5):877-86..
· Lensch MW. iPS Cells: The Needle of the Compass, BioWorld-Europe. 2008 Sept;2-3:14-16.
· Park I-H, Zhao R, West JA, Yabuuchi A, Huo H, Ince TA, Lerou PH, Lensch MW, and Daley GQ. Reprogramming of human somatic cells to pluripotency with defined factors. Nature. 2008 Jan 10;451(7175):141-6.
· Lensch MW and West JA. Looking Into the Future of Cell-Based Therapy, South Med J. 2008 Jan;101(1):79-82.
· Lensch MW and Ince TA. The Terminology of Teratocarcinomas and Teratomas, Nat Biotechnol. 2007 Nov;25(11):1211-12.
· Agarwal S, Lensch MW, Daley GQ. Current prospects for the generation of patient-specific pluripotent cells from adult tissues. Regen Med. 2007 Sep;2(5):743-52.
· Lensch MW, Schlaeger TM, Zon LI, Daley GQ. Teratoma Formation Assays with Human Embryonic Stem Cells: A Rationale for One Type of Human-Animal Chimera. Cell Stem Cell. 2007 September, 2007: 1 (3):253-8.
· Wu X*, Lensch MW*, Wylie-Sears J, Daley GQ, Bischoff J. Hemogenic Endothelial Progenitors Cells Isolated from Human Umbilical Cord Blood. Stem Cells. 2007, 25:2770-6 (*co-first authors).
· Lensch MW. Recent advances in stem cell biology (Rapid Response), Southern Medical Journal, 2007. (in press).
· Lensch MW and Daley, GQ. Embryonic Stem Cells Flock Together (News and Views), Nat Biotechnol. 2007 Jul;25(7):748-750.
· Lensch MW, Tulpule A, and Zaehres, H. RNA Interference in Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Human Embryonic Stem Cells: A Practical Handbook, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Sullivan, Eggan, and Cowan, eds. (2007).
· Schlaeger TS, Lensch MW, and Taylor PL. Science Aside: The Trajectory of Embryonic Stem Cell Research in the USA. Drug Discov Today. 2007 Apr;12(7-8):269-71.
· Lensch MW, Daheron L, and Schlaeger TS. The Pluripotent Stem Cell Niche. Stem Cell Rev. 2006;2(3):185-202.
· Lensch MW and Daley GQ. Scientific and Clinical Opportunities for Modeling Blood Disorders with Embryonic Stem Cells. Blood. 2006 Apr 1;107(7):2605-12.
· Zaehres H, Lensch MW, Daheron L, Stewart SA, Itskovitz-Eldor J, Daley GQ. High-efficiency RNA interference in human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells. 2005, 23(3):299-305.
· Dahéron L, Opitz SL, Zaehres H, Lensch MW, Andrews PW, Itskovitz-Eldor J, Daley GQ. LIF/STAT3 signaling fails to maintain self-renewal of human embryonic stem cells. Stem Cells. 2004, 22(5):770-8.
· Lensch MW and Daley GQ. Origins of mammalian hematopoiesis: in vivo paradigms and in vitro models. Gerald Shatten ed. Curr Top Dev Biol. 2004;60:127-96.
· Lensch MW, Tischkowitz M, Christianson TA, Reifsteck C, Speckhart SA, O'Dwyer ME, Jakobs P, Olson SB, LeBeau MM, Mathew CG, Hodgson SV, Larson R, Bagby GC. Acquired FANCA dysfunction and cytogenetic instability in adult acute myelogenous leukemia (Plenary Paper). Blood. 2003 Jul 1;102(1):7-16.
· Lensch MW. Clonal Selection: The Leukemic Process in Fanconi Anemia, Graduate Thesis, March 15, 2002, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon.
· Fagerlie S, Lensch MW, Pang Q, Bagby GC. The Fanconi anemia group C gene product: signaling functions in hematopoietic cells. Exp Hematol 2001 Dec;29(12):1371-81.
· Lensch MW, Rathbun RK, Olson SB, Jones GR, Bagby GC Jr. Selective pressure as an essential force in molecular evolution of myeloid leukemic clones: A view from the Fanconi anemia window. Leukemia 1999 Nov;13(11):1784-9.
· Pellegrino JE, Lensch MW, Muenke M, Chance PF. Clinical and molecular analysis in Joubert syndrome. Am J Med Genet. 1997 Oct 3;72(1):59-62.
· Graf WD, Chance PF, Lensch MW, Eng LJ, Lipe HP, Bird TD. Severe vincristine neuropathy in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A. Cancer. 1996 Apr 1;77(7):1356-62.
· Kiyosawa H, Lensch MW, Chance PF. Analysis of the CMT1A-REP repeat: mapping crossover breakpoints in CMT1A and HNPP. Hum Mol Genet. 1995 Dec;4(12):2327-34.
· Bone LJ, Dahl N, Lensch MW, Chance PF, Kelly T, Le Guern E, Magi S, Parry G, Shapiro H, Wang S, Fischbeck KH. New connexin32 mutations associated with X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Neurology. 1995 Oct;45(10):1863-6.
· Chance PF, Lensch MW, Lipe H, Brown RH Sr, Brown RH Jr, Bird TD. Hereditary