My laboratory is divided in two major axes of research.  For one, we are interested in the biology of bone marrow and brain stem cells. We think that stem cell expansion and differentiation into specialized cell types must be tightly controlled to assure adequate tissue regeneration without cancer development. We are mostly interested in the interaction between stem cells and the environment (for example other cell types) and try to understand how the damage generated by cancer treatments (for examples ionizing radiation) modify this interaction.  We observed that cancer treatments generate senescent cells (a type of damaged cells) and we believe that these damaged cells modify the environment.  

To realize this work we are using primarily mice so we can inactive certain genes and understand their role.  In parallel, we also worked towards the identification of new methods to modify/replace genes in patients-derived cells.  Our goal is to develop personalized cellular therapy approaches with minimum risk for the patient.  I firmly believe that overall my research program will help to understand mechanisms implicated in tissue regeneration.