Ana G. Freire, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow at Hackensack University Medical Center
2018 NYSCF – Druckenmiller Fellow Alumna
PhD, University of Porto, Portugal; Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Bio
Dr. Freire is studying the effects of endothelial cells, the cells that make up our blood vessels, on the formation of blood stem cells. By establishing direct contact between these two types of cells in a dish, she aims to identify which signals are crucial for producing specialized blood cells, and then to design efficient strategies to obtain blood stem cells at a large-scale level. Because current treatments for blood disorders mostly rely on the transplantation of blood stem cells from compatible donors, creating a source of blood stem cells that maintain their function over time could have a significant therapeutic impact for patients.