Trista E. North PhD

Dr. Trista E. North is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Boston Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Dr. North is Principal Faculty at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Faculty of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at HMS, and a member of the HMS Cancer Center. Dr. North received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1996, and her PhD from Dartmouth College in 2002. Her graduate work with Dr. Nancy A. Speck revealed the functional requirement for Runx1 in hematopoietic (blood) stem cell (HSC) development the mouse.

Dr. North’s postdoctoral research with Dr. Leonard I. Zon at Boston Children’s Hospital utilized zebrafish to identify novel modulators of Runx1+ HSC production via a novel chemical screening approach; this methodology led to the first example of FDA approval for investigational use of a compound (PGE2) identified in zebrafish for human clinical application. Dr. North has served on the board of Directors for the International Society of Experimental Hematology (ISEH) and as the editor of the Simply Blood blog; she is also an editorial board member and guest editor of Experimental Hematology.

Dr. North’s laboratory focuses on developmental hematopoiesis as a key to uncovering fundamental principles of stem cell regulation using zebrafish and murine models. Her current research examines the following topics in the field of Hematology: 1) characterization of novel regulators of hematovascular induction and HSC expansion; 2) biological rationale for the shifting sites of hematopoiesis in the vertebrate embryo; 3) impact of environmental modifiers on HSC production and function, including propensity for development of hematopathology.

Studies in the North lab, currently funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, have direct relevance for development of novel therapeutic strategies for alleviating blood disease and enhancing stem cell transplantation biology.