Saghi Ghaffari, MD, PhD

The Ghaffari lab works on exposing mechanisms that maintain healthy blood stem and progenitor cell production throughout life that may be perturbed in blood disorders. The lab explores these mechanisms to ultimately improve blood production for therapy including bone marrow transplantation and to interfere with disease. The topics of interest in the laboratory are blood forming (hematopoietic) stem cells, their alterations with aging and in myeloid malignancies as well as maturation of red blood cells and their alterations in disease. We are particularly focused on metabolic programs regulated through organelles outside of the nucleus that impact blood production. This approach has been fruitful in identifying new players that are promising in their potential impact on bone marrow transplantation. In carrying our work forward, we have set up multiple collaborations with investigators at Mount Sinai and elsewhere. Several projects derived from our work are available to PhD and MD/PhD students at Mount Sinai.