Helen Blau

Helen Blau is a cell biologist and stem cell researcher famous for her work on muscle diseases, regeneration and aging. She is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor and the Director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University. Blau is known for overturning the prevailing view that once a cell assumes a certain specialty in the body — or differentiated state —such as a skin or liver cell, it cannot be changed. Her research established that the fate of mammalian cells can be altered. Her finding that specialized cells can be triggered to turn on genetic programs characteristic of other differentiated states provided early evidence that mammalian cellular reprogramming was possible and opened the door to the use of reprogramming in stem cell biology.  Her work set the stage for the development of induced pluripotent stem cells and associated stem cell therapies.

Blau is also known internationally for her work on adult stem cells and how they maintain, repair and rejuvenate tissues, in particular muscle.  She revealed the role of the microenvironment of the niche, most notably tissue stiffness, in regulating stem cell function and showed how stem cell function declines in aging and hereditary muscle wasting diseases. She discovered ways to rejuvenate aged stem cell function.  Blau discovered a new class of aging-associated enzyme she termed a “gerozyme” and showed that pharmacological targeting of the gerozyme in aged muscle tissue can rejuvenate tissue structure and metabolism and increase strength. Provided by Wikipedia