Development of in vitro systems for the generation of red blood cells has become a goal for scientists globally, with an aim of producing clinical grade blood products for transfusion.   Pluripotent stem cells, cord blood progenitors and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSc) have been used and have a number of advantages over adult progenitors, however the phenotype of the resultant erythroid cells has not been compared with that of adult cells; an important analysis before such cells can be considered for therapeutics.

Current work focuses on optimizing culture systems to promote proliferation and erythroid differentiation of progenitors derived from iPSc, adult peripheral and cord blood.    We use proteomic analysis using state of the art mass spectrometry to obtain the differential protein profile during and after cell maturation to reticulocytes from the different starting sources.

Such a detailed analysis of the differential proteome of erythroid progenitor cells during erythropoiesis will significantly increase our understanding of how this process is regulated. In addition it will contribute to an expandable database for assessment of differential protein expression that can be utilised for delineating the molecular mechanisms underlying disease conditions and for the design of novel therapeutic protocols, as well as for basic research providing us with a ‘benchmark’ for comparing the progression of stem cells from other sources.